Question

Is moonlight polarized?

Answer 1

Explanation:

The primary natural sources of the night sky's illumination are, from brightest to least brilliant, as follows:

1. Moonlight,
2. Stars and planets,
3. The Milky Way,
4. Zodiacal light,
5. Airglow, and
6. The light from these sources is scattered by the earth’s atmosphere.

Many locations' night sky is impacted by light pollution from artificial city illumination. According to Woolstencroft and Brandt $\left(1974\right)$, the airglow is unpolarized, most of these sources are slightly polarized, and the scattered skylight might be significantly polarized.

Hence, the moonlight that is scattered and polarized in the atmosphere during a full moon overwhelms all other sources of nighttime light in wide areas of the sky around the moon and anti moan.