Print Email Facebook Twitter The Flux and Linear Polarization of Vegetated Earth-like Exoplanets Title The Flux and Linear Polarization of Vegetated Earth-like Exoplanets Author Cheung, Joey (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering) Contributor Stam, Daphne (mentor) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Applied Physics Date 2018-07-12 Abstract Since the first telescopes were invented, scientists all over the Earth began to explore the universe. Till now only a microscopic fraction of the universe is discovered, and a lot more is waiting for us to be seen. As the universe is so enormous, a lot of scientists and people are asking themselves whether there is life elsewhere and if there is a planet that looks just like Earth. In order to discover such an Earth-like exoplanet one can look at the total flux, linear polarization and circular polarization of light that is reflected from an exoplanet.Dr. Stam has made a doubling-adding radiative transfer code that simulates the flux and linear polarization of a planet that is covered fully with vegetation, with the assumption that the reflection is Lambertian. In reality, vegetation does not reflect isotropically. Therefore, during this thesis research the planetary code is adapted such that a more realistic vegetation surface is simulated. The atmosphere is assumed to be purely gaseous. Within the planetary code a surface reflection matrix is defined that simulates the vegetated surface. Two models are used in the surface reflection matrix to describe the flux and linear polarization of light reflected from vegetation, i.e. the Roujean Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function model for the flux and the Maignan Bidirectional Polarization Distribution Function model for the linear polarization.At the end of the research, a planetary code is delivered that simulates the flux and linear polarization of an Earth-like exoplanet covered fully with vegetation. The flux and linear polarization are presented for a spatially resolved planet and a disk-integrated planet. The polarization is also compared to Earthshine data. With the Earthshine measurements it is possible to observe the Earth as an exoplanet. With this planetary code a contribution is made in finding an Earth-like exoplanet in the future. Subject ExoplanetsFluxPolarizationEarthVegetationRadiative transfer To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:30c79e62-2d7c-4cdb-815a-4acfbc77eef9 Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights © 2018 Joey Cheung Files PDF Cheung_J_Thesis_report.pdf 6.22 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:30c79e62-2d7c-4cdb-815a-4acfbc77eef9/datastream/OBJ/view