Advances on theory and application  of polarization information propagation(Invited)

The polarization state of light is the basic attribute of electromagnetic wave. Polarization information is an engineering science and applying technology, which uses the polarization states of light as the information representation, requiring proper characterizing methods to be described. Due to the scattering characteristics of atmosphere, light has a special polarization distribution pattern on the earth surface, which can be used for autonomous navigation in near-earth space. At the same time, the transmissions of different polarization states in various scattering media also have some specific transmission characteristics. Therefore, the investigations on the transmission characteristics of polarization information in different dispersive media have important values for its wide applications in modern military, aviation, marine and other fields. Meanwhile, in recent years, the optical polarization imaging has been widely applied for achieving clear imaging in haze, underwater and other scattering media systems, in which many excellent research results have been obtained. In this paper, various presentation forms of the polarization states of light, transmission characteristics of polarization information in different dispersion media systems, polarization information recovery algorithm, and application of polarization dehazing technology were mainly introduced. Lastly, the future-development trends for the applications of polarization information was prospected.