Circular polarization of sunlight reflected by planetary atmospheres

Multiple scattering calculations are performed in order to investigate the nature of the circular polarization of sunlight reflected by planetary atmospheres. Contour diagrams as a function of size parameter and phase angle are made for the integrated light from a spherical but locally plane-parallel atmosphere of spherical particles. To investigate the origin of the circular polarization, results are also computed for second-order scattering and for a simpler semiquantitative model of scattering by two particles. Observations of the circular polarization of the planets are presently too meager for accurate deduction of cloud particle properties. However, certain very broad constraints can be placed on the properties of the dominant cloud particles on Jupiter and Saturn. The cloud particle size and refractive index deduced for the Jupiter clouds by Loskutov, Morozhenko, and Yanovitskii from analyses of the linear polarization are not consistent with the circular polarization. The few available circular polarization observations of Venus are also examined.