Directional Aspects of Vegetation Linear and Circular Polarization Biosignatures

Patty, C.H. Lucas; Pommerol, Antoine; Kühn, Jonas G.; Demory, Brice-Olivier; Thomas, Nicolas (2022). Directional Aspects of Vegetation Linear and Circular Polarization Biosignatures. Astrobiology, 22(9), pp. 1034-1046. Mary Ann Liebert 10.1089/ast.2021.0156

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Homochirality is a generic and unique property of all biochemical life and it is considered a universal and agnostic biosignature. Upon interaction with unpolarized light, homochirality induces fractional circular polarization in the light that is scattered from it, which can be sensed remotely. As such, it can be a prime candidate biosignature in the context of future life detection missions and observatories. The linear polarizance of vegetation is also sometimes envisaged as a biosignature, although it does not share the same molecular origin as circular polarization. It is known that linear polarization of surfaces is strongly dependent on the phase angle. The relationship between the phase angle and circular polarization stemming from macromolecular assemblies such as in vegetation, however, remained unclear. In this study, using the average of 27 different species, we demonstrate that the circular polarization–phase angle dependency of vegetation induces relatively small changes in spectral shape and mostly affects the signal magnitude. With these results, we underline the use of circular spectropolarimetry as a promising agnostic biosignature complementary to the use of linear spectropolarimetry and scalar reflectance.

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