ABSTRACT
Polarization states can be represented directly by measurable quantities, like the intensity. The Poincare sphere is a geometrical representation of the polarization states, used to represent all the possible conventional polarization states, where the amplitude and the phase difference of the orthogonal components of the electric field are the required information to represent them. The propagation of light into an optical medium can be affected by several conditions. Of fundamental importance in polarization optics are the non-isotropic optical media, which can be divided into uniaxial or biaxial crystals. The most common and simple interaction of matter and polarized light is provided by the linear response. The operation of the optical polarization devices like linear polarizers, wave-phase or wave plate retarders, rotators, among many other optical instruments, can be represented by Jones or by Mueller matrices. The linear horizontal polarization is the most common in the surface of the Earth and also in the water bodies and oceans.
