Solar Vector Measurement Algorithm Based on Multiple Polarization Sensors

It is put forward that the solar vector (direction of the sun) can be measured through multiple polarization sensors, according to the formation principle of the atmospheric polariztion pattern. First, the formation of the atmospheric polarization pattern is introduced. Then, the polarization sensor consisting of two groups of polarization units is designed, and the optimal angle between polarization units is demonstrated, and the method of extracting the solar azimuthal information from the atmospheric polarization pattern is analyzed. Finally, with the least squares algorithm united, the method of measuring the solar vector with multiple polarization sensors is put forward, and the experiment is conducted consequently. The results indicate that it can get precise solar vector using the method proposed, and the errors of the solar azimuth angle and elevation angle are 0.2° and 1.0° respectively. In addition, it has solved the mutation problem which is caused by the parallelism of the maximum polarization directions measured by double polarization sensors. Therefore, the algorithm is feasible to measure solar vector with multiple polarization sensors.