Display of the Final Polarization Data

The final polarization parameters are usually presented graphically in the form of a polarization map (see the first page of this document for an example). Each measurement is represented as a vector parallel to the plane of polarization. The length of the vector is proportional to the degree of polarization, which varies from 0% to 100%. The Stokes vectors can be binned to reduce the number of vectors in the map to a manageable number. The map is often overlayed on a total intensity image or contour map of the object to emphasize any correlation between the visual appearance of the object and the morphology of the polarization map.