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BIOPHOTONICS

Global position by polarization

Nature Photonics volume 12, page 318 (2018)Cite this article

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To test their hypothesis, the team set up an underwater polarization-sensitive camera where polarization filters made from parallel aluminium nanowires aligned at angles of 0°, 45°, 90° and 135° were deposited onto the pixels of a 2-megapixel charge-coupled device image sensor. The arrangement allows the camera to capture light intensity, partial polarization and polarization angle images, and mimics the vision system of the mantis shrimp. Experimental data were then captured using the camera at different locations (Australia, Hawaii, Florida and Finland) around the world and at different water depths (2–20 m) and at different times of day between sunrise and sunset. The results showed that navigation using such a system is possible with an error of ~6 m for every 1 km travelled.

As several marine animals are known to have polarization-sensitive vision, it throws open the possibility that they could be using their vision as a solar compass for long-distance underwater navigation and geolocalization purposes. It is already established that many land-dwelling arthropods such as ants, bees, beetles and spiders use light polarization as a navigational aid. Despite the team’s measurements only having taken place at four different global locations, they believe that the uniformity of the properties of oceanic water mean that the method has general applicability.

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  1. Nature Photonics https://www.nature.com/naturephotonics

    Oliver Graydon

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  1. Oliver Graydon
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Correspondence to Oliver Graydon.

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Graydon, O. Global position by polarization. Nature Photon 12, 318 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0187-3

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