Polarization is the orientation of the electric field of an electromagnetic wave. It is a topic not well understood by engineers, which often leads to less than optimum system performance and, in some cases, complete system failure. The aim of this book is to understand polarization concepts and to provide useful tools to maximize electromagnetic system performance through the best use of polarization. It is suitable as a textbook, especially as part of radio systems-oriented course work intended to study the complete propagation channel.

This second edition is an expanded and reorganized version of the first edition and contains two parts. Part 1 covers the fundamental theory and mathematical formulations. It tackles the topic at an intermediate level, with an emphasis on understanding all basic concepts and the calculation of received signals. Part 2 applies that information to areas such as antenna polarization, antenna-wave interaction, dual-polarized systems, and depolarizing media. This edition also includes the application to wireless communications, adaptive systems, radar and radiometry and demonstrates how polarization can be exploited for such purposes. For instance, communication capacity can be doubled using orthogonal polarizations and polarization diversity can be used to improve system performance, such as data rate increase in wireless communications.