Error analysis and optimal design of polarization calibration unit for solar telescope

Polarization calibration unit（PCU） has become an indispensable element for solar telescopes to remove the instrumental polarization; the polarimetric accuracy of calibration depends strongly on the properties of PCU. In the paper, we analyze the measurement errors induced by PCU based on polarized light theory and find that the imperfections of the waveplate generate the main calibration errors. An optimized calibration method is proposed to avoid the effects from waveplate imperfections, and a numerical simulation is given to evaluate the polarization accuracy by analyzing the relation between calibration error and intensity instability. The work is very important for solar telescopes with high polarization precision up to 10^（-4） I_c.

Practical calibration method for instantaneous polarization radar systems utilizing a metal sphere

A practical calibration method is proposed for instantaneous polarization radar systems.The method only needs one measurement by using a metal sphere.The distortions of system and the actual polarization scattering matrix（PSM）of target can be obtained.First,an instantaneous polarization radar system is presented.The system can obtain PSM by a single pulse echo.The dual-polarization antenna can transmit and receive two orthogonal polarization waves.The multilayer micro-strip patch antenna is adopted for this kind of radar system.Second,based on the multi-port network theory,the operation and system errors of instantaneous polarization radar system are analyzed.By making assumption on the cross-talk factors of antenna,distortion matrices of R and Tare derived.Finally,the calibration method based on instantaneous polarization measurement is introduced.Simulation results show the performance of this calibration method.The values of calibrated PSM are in agreement with the actual ones after calibration.