Patent ID: 7038776

Claim:
A simultaneous Stokes Vector polarimeter for a light beam from a point location of a scene, comprising an optics unit having: a slit with a slit axis; a foreoptics that focuses the light beam from the point location through the slit; a collimator that receives the light beam from the slit and collimates the light beam; a cylinder lens that receives the light beam from the collimator, wherein the cylinder lens has a cylindrical axis parallel to the slit axis; a re-imaging lens that images the light beam from the cylinder lens onto a focal plane; and a set of polarizing filters including three polarization filters having three different polarizations, wherein the polarization filters are adjacent to each other in a direction perpendicular to the slit axis and wherein the polarization filters lie between the cylinder lens and the focal plane so that the light beam is directed onto the set of polarizing filters.