Influence of turbid atmosphere on polarization navigation

The effectiveness of polarization navigation depends heavily on the ability to derive effective all-sky polarization distribution information from different atmospheric conditions. Based on the simulation of vectorial atmospheric transport equation, the properties of all-sky distribution of degree and angle of polarization under cloudless clear and turbid atmosphere were analyzed, and the effects of different atmospheric turbidity, solar orientation, observed altitude and observed band on the polarization distribution were studied, and then the effectiveness of polarization navigation under different atmospheric conditions was discussed. The results show that the solar orientation determines the overall pattern of the all-sky polarization information. The turbid atmosphere has obvious influence on the polarization information of the near ground. When the whole layer of the optical thickness increases to more than 2, the degree of polarization will be reduced to below 0.1, in this case, the detection of the polarization information becomes more difficult, and not conducive to the navigation. While the middle and upper atmosphere dominated by clear skies are less affected by turbid atmosphere, the distribution of polarization information is stable and in accordance with the distribution of Rayleigh single scattering, which can ensure the effectiveness of navigation during the daytime. And the long waveband is more suitable as the observation band for polarization navigation within the limits of visible band under cloudless clear atmosphere.