Success of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation: revealing the chance Viking sailors could reach Greenland from Norway

Royal Society Open Science
Dénes Száz, Gábor Horváth

Abstract

According to a famous hypothesis, Viking sailors could navigate along the latitude between Norway and Greenland by means of sky polarization in cloudy weather using a sun compass and sunstone crystals. Using data measured in earlier atmospheric optical and psychophysical experiments, here we determine the success rate of this sky-polarimetric Viking navigation. Simulating 1000 voyages between Norway and Greenland with varying cloudiness at summer solstice and spring equinox, we revealed the chance with which Viking sailors could reach Greenland under the varying weather conditions of a 3-week-long journey as a function of the navigation periodicity Δt if they analysed sky polarization with calcite, cordierite or tourmaline sunstones. Examples of voyage routes are also presented. Our results show that the sky-polarimetric navigation is surprisingly successful on both days of the spring equinox and summer solstice even under cloudy conditions if the navigator determined the north direction periodically at least once in every 3 h, independently of the type of sunstone used for the analysis of sky polarization. This explains why the Vikings could rule the Atlantic Ocean for 300 years and could reach North America without a magnetic...Continue Reading

References

Jan 4, 2003·Nature·Thomas Alerstam
Sep 24, 2004·Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision·Bence Suhai, Gábor Horváth
Jul 11, 2007·Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision·Ramón HegedüsGábor Horváth
Jul 20, 1994·Applied Optics·C Roslund, C Beckman
Feb 2, 2011·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Gábor HorváthRüdiger Wehner
Aug 15, 2014·Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision·Alexandra FarkasGábor Horváth
Aug 6, 2016·Proceedings. Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Dénes SzázGábor Horváth

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