Polarization of planetary phase functions for the cases of two cloud cap configurations and for a cloud-free atmosphere to illustrate the effect of locally obscured limb polarization on the net phase function at wavelengths of λ = 550 nm. The upper three panels show the spatially resolved normalized Stokes parameters q(α) and u(α) for selected phase angles α of spatially resolved planetary disks. Below, the resulting net normalized Stokes parameters q(α) and u(α) are shown. The bottom two panels show the relative differences of q(α) and the reference case of a cloudless atmosphere at a linear and logarithmic scale. For all figures, the phase angles range from −180° to 180°. A full planetary orbit is therefore considered.