Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon

Willeke Mulder; C. H.Lucas Patty; Stefano Spadaccia; Antoine Pommerol; Brice Olivier Demory; Christoph U. Keller; Jonas G. Kühn; Frans Snik; Daphne M. Stam

doi:10.1117/12.2633271

Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon

Willeke Mulder^*, C. H.Lucas Patty, Stefano Spadaccia, Antoine Pommerol, Brice Olivier Demory, Christoph U. Keller, Jonas G. Kühn, Frans Snik, Daphne M. Stam

^*Corresponding author for this work

Astrodynamics & Space Missions

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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Abstract

Does life exist outside our Solar System A first step towards searching for life outside our Solar System is detecting life on Earth by using remote sensing applications. One powerful and unambiguous biosignature is the circular polarization resulting from the homochirality of biotic molecules and systems. We aim to investigate the possibility of identifying and characterizing life on Earth by using airborne spectropolarimetric observations from a hot air balloon during our field campaign in Switzerland, May 2022. In this proceeding we present the optical-setup and the data obtained from aerial circular spectropolarimetric measurements of farmland, forests, lakes and urban sites. We make use of the well-calibrated FlyPol instrument that measures the fractionally induced circular polarization (V/I) of (reflected) light with a sensitivity of < 10-4. The instrument operates in the visible spectrum, ranging from 400 to 900 nm. We demonstrate the possibility to distinguish biotic from abiotic features using circular polarization spectra and additional broadband linear polarization information. We review the performance of our optical-setup and discuss potential improvements. This sets the requirements on how to perform future airborne spectropolarimetric measurements of the Earth's surface features from several elevations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Light in Nature IX
Editors	Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, Katherine Creath, Joseph A. Shaw
Publisher	SPIE
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9781510654129
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2633271
Publication status	Published - 2022
Event	Light in Nature IX 2022 - San Diego, United States Duration: 23 Aug 2022 → …

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume	12214
ISSN (Print)	0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)	1996-756X

Conference

Conference	Light in Nature IX 2022
Country/Territory	United States
City	San Diego
Period	23/08/22 → …

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

Biosignatures
Earth observation
Field campaign
Polarization
Remote-sensing
Spectropolarimetry

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10.1117/12.2633271

1221404Final published version, 13.5 MB

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Mulder, W., Patty, C. H. L., Spadaccia, S., Pommerol, A., Demory, B. O., Keller, C. U., Kühn, J. G., Snik, F., & Stam, D. M. (2022). Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon. In V. Lakshminarayanan, K. Creath, & J. A. Shaw (Eds.), Light in Nature IX Article 1221404 (Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; Vol. 12214). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2633271

@inproceedings{929b23602d3a4acb8f68ac736c50a400,

title = "Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon",

abstract = "Does life exist outside our Solar System A first step towards searching for life outside our Solar System is detecting life on Earth by using remote sensing applications. One powerful and unambiguous biosignature is the circular polarization resulting from the homochirality of biotic molecules and systems. We aim to investigate the possibility of identifying and characterizing life on Earth by using airborne spectropolarimetric observations from a hot air balloon during our field campaign in Switzerland, May 2022. In this proceeding we present the optical-setup and the data obtained from aerial circular spectropolarimetric measurements of farmland, forests, lakes and urban sites. We make use of the well-calibrated FlyPol instrument that measures the fractionally induced circular polarization (V/I) of (reflected) light with a sensitivity of < 10-4. The instrument operates in the visible spectrum, ranging from 400 to 900 nm. We demonstrate the possibility to distinguish biotic from abiotic features using circular polarization spectra and additional broadband linear polarization information. We review the performance of our optical-setup and discuss potential improvements. This sets the requirements on how to perform future airborne spectropolarimetric measurements of the Earth's surface features from several elevations. ",

keywords = "Biosignatures, Earth observation, Field campaign, Polarization, Remote-sensing, Spectropolarimetry",

author = "Willeke Mulder and Patty, {C. H.Lucas} and Stefano Spadaccia and Antoine Pommerol and Demory, {Brice Olivier} and Keller, {Christoph U.} and K{\"u}hn, {Jonas G.} and Frans Snik and Stam, {Daphne M.}",

note = "Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository {\textquoteleft}You share, we take care!{\textquoteright} – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. ; Light in Nature IX 2022 ; Conference date: 23-08-2022",

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doi = "10.1117/12.2633271",

language = "English",

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Mulder, W, Patty, CHL, Spadaccia, S, Pommerol, A, Demory, BO, Keller, CU, Kühn, JG, Snik, F & Stam, DM 2022, Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon. in V Lakshminarayanan, K Creath & JA Shaw (eds), Light in Nature IX., 1221404, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, vol. 12214, SPIE, Light in Nature IX 2022, San Diego, United States, 23/08/22. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2633271

Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon. / Mulder, Willeke; Patty, C. H.Lucas; Spadaccia, Stefano et al.
Light in Nature IX. ed. / Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan; Katherine Creath; Joseph A. Shaw. SPIE, 2022. 1221404 (Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; Vol. 12214).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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AU - Mulder, Willeke

AU - Patty, C. H.Lucas

AU - Spadaccia, Stefano

AU - Pommerol, Antoine

AU - Demory, Brice Olivier

AU - Keller, Christoph U.

AU - Kühn, Jonas G.

AU - Snik, Frans

AU - Stam, Daphne M.

N1 - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Does life exist outside our Solar System A first step towards searching for life outside our Solar System is detecting life on Earth by using remote sensing applications. One powerful and unambiguous biosignature is the circular polarization resulting from the homochirality of biotic molecules and systems. We aim to investigate the possibility of identifying and characterizing life on Earth by using airborne spectropolarimetric observations from a hot air balloon during our field campaign in Switzerland, May 2022. In this proceeding we present the optical-setup and the data obtained from aerial circular spectropolarimetric measurements of farmland, forests, lakes and urban sites. We make use of the well-calibrated FlyPol instrument that measures the fractionally induced circular polarization (V/I) of (reflected) light with a sensitivity of < 10-4. The instrument operates in the visible spectrum, ranging from 400 to 900 nm. We demonstrate the possibility to distinguish biotic from abiotic features using circular polarization spectra and additional broadband linear polarization information. We review the performance of our optical-setup and discuss potential improvements. This sets the requirements on how to perform future airborne spectropolarimetric measurements of the Earth's surface features from several elevations.

AB - Does life exist outside our Solar System A first step towards searching for life outside our Solar System is detecting life on Earth by using remote sensing applications. One powerful and unambiguous biosignature is the circular polarization resulting from the homochirality of biotic molecules and systems. We aim to investigate the possibility of identifying and characterizing life on Earth by using airborne spectropolarimetric observations from a hot air balloon during our field campaign in Switzerland, May 2022. In this proceeding we present the optical-setup and the data obtained from aerial circular spectropolarimetric measurements of farmland, forests, lakes and urban sites. We make use of the well-calibrated FlyPol instrument that measures the fractionally induced circular polarization (V/I) of (reflected) light with a sensitivity of < 10-4. The instrument operates in the visible spectrum, ranging from 400 to 900 nm. We demonstrate the possibility to distinguish biotic from abiotic features using circular polarization spectra and additional broadband linear polarization information. We review the performance of our optical-setup and discuss potential improvements. This sets the requirements on how to perform future airborne spectropolarimetric measurements of the Earth's surface features from several elevations.

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KW - Earth observation

KW - Field campaign

KW - Polarization

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KW - Spectropolarimetry

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AN - SCOPUS:85140971501

T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

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A2 - Lakshminarayanan, Vasudevan

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A2 - Shaw, Joseph A.

PB - SPIE

Y2 - 23 August 2022

ER -

Spectropolarimetry of life: Airborne measurements from a hot air balloon

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