{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,17]],"date-time":"2026-01-17T21:11:59Z","timestamp":1768684319085,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,4]],"date-time":"2022-05-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1651622400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["42130104"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42130104"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2017YFB0503004"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017YFB0503004"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["42130104"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42130104"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2017YFB0503004"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017YFB0503004"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>There are two widely recognized global fields in nature: the gravity field and the geomagnetic field. Universal gravitation and Earth rotation are important sources of the Earth\u2019s gravity and geomagnetic fields, which are well known to us. After years of long-term observation, global research, and analysis, it was discovered that we have neglected a direct incident energy of the universe on the Earth. Solar radiation, leading to energy exchange from the atmosphere 100 km above the land surface, is the energy source of the Earth. Polarization is one of the four basic physical properties of solar radiation. After the solar radiation reaches the surface of these media, it reflects, scatters or refracts, and exhibits different degrees of polarization. The polarized solar light forms the Earth\u2013sky polarization vector field. The polarized light dispersion is expected to become a new method for global analysis of the human environment. Polarization detection is the best way to accurately explore the atmospheric effects. Local polarized skylight distribution was found in different sites in the world; however, the global distribution of the polarized sunlight radiation has never been explored. In this paper, we investigate the Global Skylight Polarization Field. This study aimed at providing new insight into the laws of polarization over our Earth. We use a Rayleigh scattering model to obtain the simulation results of the sky polarization field. Rayleigh scattering occurs when the particle size is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic wave. We also use a polarized fisheye camera to collect the sky polarization image and calculate the distribution pattern of the DOLP (degree of linear polarization) and AOLP (azimuth of linear polarization) of the skylight. The stability and gradual change in the degree of polarization in the zenith direction are verified, and the distribution law and daily change law of the degree of polarization in the sky are obtained. With the increase in the solar altitude angle, the degree of polarization will decrease. We also observed the skylight polarization in different weather conditions. Our results demonstrate the physical basis, characteristics, and usability of the polarization field. They show an inevitable trend from optical remote sensing to polarization remote sensing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14092193","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,4]],"date-time":"2022-05-04T08:21:25Z","timestamp":1651652485000},"page":"2193","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of the Global Skylight Polarization Vector Field"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Lei","family":"Yan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Telemetry, Guilin University of Aerospace Technology, Guilin 541004, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanfei","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2585-9984","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wei","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3396-3327","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yi","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Feizhou","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Taixia","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4701-128X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jouni","family":"Peltoniemi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, National Land Survey of Finland, 02150 Espoo, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hongying","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8638-8434","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siyuan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2544-4487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zihan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and 3S Application, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"974","DOI":"10.1175\/JAS3391.1","article-title":"Evaluation of the MODIS aerosol retrievals over ocean and land during CLAMS","volume":"62","author":"Levy","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. 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