An imaging spectropolarimeter for measuring the polarization and spectral content
and the spatial signature of a target scene. The imaging spectropolarimeter includes
an objective optic for receiving an electromagnetic signal and a modulator for
modulating the electromagnetic signal The amplitude of each frequency component
of the resulting modulated electromagnetic signal is a function of the particular
polarization state of each frequency component of the electromagnetic signal. A
linear polarizer passes a single polarization of the modulated electromagnetic
signal to a tunable filter, which is tunable through a frequency spectrum. The
tunable filter outputs a plurality of electromagnetic signal samples at predetermined
frequency increments. A focal plane array receives each electromagnetic signal
sample and outputs a spectrum signal and a processor applies Fourier transformation
to the spectrum signal to obtain at least one Stokes polarization vector component
for each pixel within the scene.