Particle distribution variation on linear and circular polarization persistence in fog environments

Scattering environment conditions, such as fog, pose a challenge for many detection and surveillance active sensing operations in both ground and air platforms. For example, current autonomous vehicles rely on a range of optical sensors that are affected by degraded visual environments. Real-world fog conditions can vary widely depending on the location and environmental conditions during its creation. In our previous work we have shown benefits for increasing signal and range through scattering environments such as fog utilizing polarized light, specifically circular polarization. In this work we investigate the effect of changing fog particle sizes and distributions on polarization persistence for both circularly and linearly polarized light via simulation. We present polarization tracking Monte Carlo results for a range of realistic monodisperse particle sizes as well as varying particle size distributions as a model of scattering environments. We systematically vary the monodisperse particle size, mean particle size of a distribution, particle size distribution width, and number of distribution lobes (bi-modal), as they affect polarized light transmission through a scattering environment. We show that circular polarization signal persists better than linear polarization signal for most variations of the particle distribution parameters.