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Compendium of Meteorology pp 79–90Cite as

Polarization of Skylight

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Abstract

Since the discovery by Arago in 1809 that the light of the clear sky is polarized, interest in the problems of skylight polarization has varied greatly. At first, attention was concentrated more on the development of a suitable measuring technique to determine the magnitude of the polarization and its distribution over the sky. Arago first discovered a neutral point, named after him the Arago point, where the polarization disappears, about 20° above the antisolar point. The other neutral points were discovered in 1840 about 20° above the sun by Babinet and below the sun by Brewster. Because of the simplicity of the determination of neutral points, more attention was paid later on to their study and soon a complete picture of diurnal, seasonal, and secular variations in the position of the Arago and Babinet points was obtained.

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  1. University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Zdeněk Sekera

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Thomas F. Malone

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© 1951 American Meteorological Society

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Sekera, Z. (1951). Polarization of Skylight. In: Malone, T.F. (eds) Compendium of Meteorology. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-940033-70-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-940033-70-9_6

  • Publisher Name: American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-940033-70-9

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