| Over the past few decades, there has been growing understanding about the
potential of measurements of polarization to provide information about the
composition and physical nature of planetary atmospheres. Further, it is
now well known that ignoring polarization can lead to incorrect
measurements of the intensity of scattered light. In this talk, I will
discuss several examples of the use of polarization as a tool for remote
sensing of planetary atmospheres, including but not limited to
spatio-temporal variations of Venus haze properties, circular polarization
of sunlight reflected by clouds, cloud top pressure retrieval, cirrus
cloud microphysical properties, remote sensing of tropospheric ozone,
spectral surface reflectivity, aerosol optical thickness on Mars, vertical
structure of the Jovian atmosphere, stratospheric distribution of aerosols
on Jupiter, and identification of liquid water on exoplanets. I will also
briefly touch on the advances in polarimetry that have made these
applications possible. |