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... Show moreDoes 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. Show less
Are we alone? In our quest to find life beyond Earth, we use our own planet to develop and verify new methods and techniques to remotely detect life. Our Life Signature Detection polarimeter ... Show moreAre we alone? In our quest to find life beyond Earth, we use our own planet to develop and verify new methods and techniques to remotely detect life. Our Life Signature Detection polarimeter (LSDpol), a snapshot full-Stokes spectropolarimeter to be deployed in the field and in space, looks for signals of life on Earth by sensing the linear and circular polarization states of reflected light. Examples of these biosignatures are linear polarization resulting from O2-A band and vegetation, e.g. the Red edge and the Green bump, as well as circular polarization resulting from the homochirality of biotic molecules. LSDpol is optimized for sensing circular polarization. To this end, LSDpol employs a spatial light modulator in the entrance slit of the spectrograph, a liquid-crystal quarter-wave retarder where the fast axis rotates as a function of slit position. The original design of LSDpol implemented a dual-beam spectropolarimeter by combining a quarter-wave plate with a polarization grating. Unfortunately, this design causes significant linear-to-circular cross-talk. In addition, it revealed spurious polarization modulation effects. Here, we present numerical simulations that illustrate how Fresnel diffraction effects can create these spurious modulations. We verified the simulations with accurate polarization state measurements in the lab using 100% linearly and circularly polarized light. Show less
