On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers
Between AD 900 and AD 1200 Vikings, being able to navigate skillfully across the open sea, were the dominant seafarers of the North Atlantic. When the Sun was shining, geographical north could be determined with a special sundial. However, how the Vikings could have navigated in cloudy or foggy situ...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1925736 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 |
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ftulundlup:oai:lup.lub.lu.se:7cd3de4b-7b6c-4c61-999d-f38e1d902c7c 2023-05-15T15:09:43+02:00 On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers Horvath, Gabor Barta, Andras Pomozi, Istvan Suhai, Bence Hegedues, Ramon Åkesson, Susanne Meyer-Rochow, Benno Wehner, Ruediger 2011 https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1925736 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 eng eng Royal Society Publishing https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1925736 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 wos:000286721400020 scopus:79952347219 pmid:21282181 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences; 366(1565), pp 772-782 (2011) ISSN: 1471-2970 Biological Sciences Viking navigation sky polarization imaging polarimetry atmospheric optics contributiontojournal/article info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2011 ftulundlup https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 2023-02-01T23:26:38Z Between AD 900 and AD 1200 Vikings, being able to navigate skillfully across the open sea, were the dominant seafarers of the North Atlantic. When the Sun was shining, geographical north could be determined with a special sundial. However, how the Vikings could have navigated in cloudy or foggy situations, when the Sun's disc was unusable, is still not fully known. A hypothesis was formulated in 1967, which suggested that under foggy or cloudy conditions, Vikings might have been able to determine the azimuth direction of the Sun with the help of skylight polarization, just like some insects. This hypothesis has been widely accepted and is regularly cited by researchers, even though an experimental basis, so far, has not been forthcoming. According to this theory, the Vikings could have determined the direction of the skylight polarization with the help of an enigmatic birefringent crystal, functioning as a linearly polarizing filter. Such a crystal is referred to as 'sunstone' in one of the Viking's sagas, but its exact nature is unknown. Although accepted by many, the hypothesis of polarimetric navigation by Vikings also has numerous sceptics. In this paper, we summarize the results of our own celestial polarization measurements and psychophysical laboratory experiments, in which we studied the atmospheric optical prerequisites of possible sky-polarimetric navigation in Tunisia, Finland, Hungary and the high Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic North Atlantic Lund University Publications (LUP) Arctic Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366 1565 772 782 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Lund University Publications (LUP) |
op_collection_id |
ftulundlup |
language |
English |
topic |
Biological Sciences Viking navigation sky polarization imaging polarimetry atmospheric optics |
spellingShingle |
Biological Sciences Viking navigation sky polarization imaging polarimetry atmospheric optics Horvath, Gabor Barta, Andras Pomozi, Istvan Suhai, Bence Hegedues, Ramon Åkesson, Susanne Meyer-Rochow, Benno Wehner, Ruediger On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences Viking navigation sky polarization imaging polarimetry atmospheric optics |
description |
Between AD 900 and AD 1200 Vikings, being able to navigate skillfully across the open sea, were the dominant seafarers of the North Atlantic. When the Sun was shining, geographical north could be determined with a special sundial. However, how the Vikings could have navigated in cloudy or foggy situations, when the Sun's disc was unusable, is still not fully known. A hypothesis was formulated in 1967, which suggested that under foggy or cloudy conditions, Vikings might have been able to determine the azimuth direction of the Sun with the help of skylight polarization, just like some insects. This hypothesis has been widely accepted and is regularly cited by researchers, even though an experimental basis, so far, has not been forthcoming. According to this theory, the Vikings could have determined the direction of the skylight polarization with the help of an enigmatic birefringent crystal, functioning as a linearly polarizing filter. Such a crystal is referred to as 'sunstone' in one of the Viking's sagas, but its exact nature is unknown. Although accepted by many, the hypothesis of polarimetric navigation by Vikings also has numerous sceptics. In this paper, we summarize the results of our own celestial polarization measurements and psychophysical laboratory experiments, in which we studied the atmospheric optical prerequisites of possible sky-polarimetric navigation in Tunisia, Finland, Hungary and the high Arctic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Horvath, Gabor Barta, Andras Pomozi, Istvan Suhai, Bence Hegedues, Ramon Åkesson, Susanne Meyer-Rochow, Benno Wehner, Ruediger |
author_facet |
Horvath, Gabor Barta, Andras Pomozi, Istvan Suhai, Bence Hegedues, Ramon Åkesson, Susanne Meyer-Rochow, Benno Wehner, Ruediger |
author_sort |
Horvath, Gabor |
title |
On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
title_short |
On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
title_full |
On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
title_fullStr |
On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
title_full_unstemmed |
On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers |
title_sort |
on the trail of vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by viking seafarers |
publisher |
Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1925736 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Arctic North Atlantic |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences; 366(1565), pp 772-782 (2011) ISSN: 1471-2970 |
op_relation |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1925736 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 wos:000286721400020 scopus:79952347219 pmid:21282181 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0194 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
366 |
container_issue |
1565 |
container_start_page |
772 |
op_container_end_page |
782 |
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