Improved astrometry of space debris with image restoration

In order to implement an observing strategy, image degradation that occurs during optical observation of space debris is ineluctable and has distinct characteris- tics. Image restoration is presented as a way to remove the influence of degradation in CCD images of space debris, based on assumed PSF models with the same F-WHM as images of the object. In the process of image restoration, the maximum entropy method is adopted. The results of reduction using observed raw CCD images indi- cate that the precision in estimating positions of objects is improved and the effects of degradation are reduced. Improving the astrometry of space debris using image restoration is effective and feasible.

The State-of-the-Art Review on Applications of Intrusive Sensing,Image Processing Techniques,and Machine Learning Methods in Pavement Monitoring and Analysis

In modern transportation,pavement is one of the most important civil infrastructures for the movement of vehicles and pedestrians.Pavement service quality and service life are of great importance for civil engineers as they directly affect the regular service for the users.Therefore,monitoring the health status of pavement before irreversible damage occurs is essential for timely maintenance,which in turn ensures public transportation safety.Many pavement damages can be detected and analyzed by monitoring the structure dynamic responses and evaluating road surface conditions.Advanced technologies can be employed for the collection and analysis of such data,including various intrusive sensing techniques,image processing techniques,and machine learning methods.This review summarizes the state-ofthe-art of these three technologies in pavement engineering in recent years and suggests possible developments for future pavement monitoring and analysis based on these approaches.

Machine Learning-based Identification of Contaminated Images in Light Curve Data Preprocessing

Attitude is one of the crucial parameters for space objects and plays a vital role in collision prediction and debris removal.Analyzing light curves to determine attitude is the most commonly used method.In photometric observations,outliers may exist in the obtained light curves due to various reasons.Therefore,preprocessing is required to remove these outliers to obtain high quality light curves.Through statistical analysis,the reasons leading to outliers can be categorized into two main types:first,the brightness of the object significantly increases due to the passage of a star nearby,referred to as“stellar contamination,”and second,the brightness markedly decreases due to cloudy cover,referred to as“cloudy contamination.”The traditional approach of manually inspecting images for contamination is time-consuming and labor-intensive.However,we propose the utilization of machine learning methods as a substitute.Convolutional Neural Networks and SVMs are employed to identify cases of stellar contamination and cloudy contamination,achieving F1 scores of 1.00 and 0.98 on a test set,respectively.We also explore other machine learning methods such as ResNet-18 and Light Gradient Boosting Machine,then conduct comparative analyses of the results.

A Preliminary Comparative Study on the Centering Algorithms for CassiniISS NAC Images

Obtaining high precision is an important consideration for astrometric studies using images from the Narrow Angle Camera(NAC)of the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem(ISS).Selecting the best centering algorithm is key to enhancing astrometric accuracy.In this study,we compared the accuracy of five centering algorithms:Gaussian fitting,the modified moments method,and three point-spread function(PSF)fitting methods(effective PSF(ePSF),PSFEx,and extended PSF(x PSF)from the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations(CICLOPS)).We assessed these algorithms using 70 ISS NAC star field images taken with CL1 and CL2 filters across different stellar magnitudes.The ePSF method consistently demonstrated the highest accuracy,achieving precision below 0.03 pixels for stars of magnitude 8-9.Compared to the previously considered best,the modified moments method,the e PSF method improved overall accuracy by about 10%and 21%in the sample and line directions,respectively.Surprisingly,the xPSF model provided by CICLOPS had lower precision than the ePSF.Conversely,the ePSF exhibits an improvement in measurement precision of 23%and 17%in the sample and line directions,respectively,over the xPSF.This discrepancy might be attributed to the xPSF focusing on photometry rather than astrometry.These findings highlight the necessity of constructing PSF models specifically tailored for astrometric purposes in NAC images and provide guidance for enhancing astrometric measurements using these ISS NAC images.

Lossless Compression Method for the Magnetic and Helioseismic Imager(MHI)Payload

The Solar Polar-orbit Observatory(SPO),proposed by Chinese scientists,is designed to observe the solar polar regions in an unprecedented way with a spacecraft traveling in a large solar inclination angle and a small ellipticity.However,one of the most significant challenges lies in ultra-long-distance data transmission,particularly for the Magnetic and Helioseismic Imager(MHI),which is the most important payload and generates the largest volume of data in SPO.In this paper,we propose a tailored lossless data compression method based on the measurement mode and characteristics of MHI data.The background out of the solar disk is removed to decrease the pixel number of an image under compression.Multiple predictive coding methods are combined to eliminate the redundancy utilizing the correlation(space,spectrum,and polarization)in data set,improving the compression ratio.Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves an average compression ratio of 3.67.The compression time is also less than the general observation period.The method exhibits strong feasibility and can be easily adapted to MHI.

How to Coadd Images.Ⅱ.Anti-aliasing and PSF Deconvolution

We have developed a novel method for co-adding multiple under-sampled images that combines the iteratively reweighted least squares and divide-and-conquer algorithms.Our approach not only allows for the anti-aliasing of the images but also enables Point-Spread Function(PSF)deconvolution,resulting in enhanced restoration of extended sources,the highest peak signal-to-noise ratio,and reduced ringing artefacts.To test our method,we conducted numerical simulations that replicated observation runs of the China Space Station Telescope/the VLT Survey Telescope(VST)and compared our results to those obtained using previous algorithms.The simulation showed that our method outperforms previous approaches in several ways,such as restoring the profile of extended sources and minimizing ringing artefacts.Additionally,because our method relies on the inherent advantages of least squares fitting,it is more versatile and does not depend on the local uniformity hypothesis for the PSF.However,the new method consumes much more computation than the other approaches.

Reconstructing the landing trajectory of the CE-3 lunar probe by using images from the landing camera

An accurate determination of the landing trajectory of Chang＇e-3 （CE-3） is significant for verifying orbital control strategy, optimizing orbital planning, accu- rately determining the landing site of CE-3 and analyzing the geological background of the landing site. Due to complexities involved in the landing process, there are some differences between the planned trajectory and the actual trajectory of CE-3. The land- ing camera on CE-3 recorded a sequence of the landing process with a frequency of 10 frames per second. These images recorded by the landing camera and high-resolution images of the lunar surface are utilized to calculate the position of the probe, so as to reconstruct its precise trajectory. This paper proposes using the method of trajectory reconstruction by Single Image Space Resection to make a detailed study of the hov- ering stage at a height of 100 m above the lunar surface. Analysis of the data shows that the closer CE-3 came to the lunar surface, the higher the spatial resolution of im- ages that were acquired became, and the more accurately the horizontal and vertical position of CE-3 could be determined. The horizontal and vertical accuracies were 7.09 m and 4.27 m respectively during the hovering stage at a height of 100.02 m. The reconstructed trajectory can reflect the change in CE-3＇s position during the powered descent process. A slight movement in CE-3 during the hovering stage is also clearly demonstrated. These results will provide a basis for analysis of orbit control strategy, and it will be conducive to adjustment and optimization of orbit control strategy in follow-up missions.

Automatic removal of false image stars in disk-resolved images of the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem

Taking a large number of images,the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem(ISS)has been routinely used in astrometry.In ISS images,disk-resolved objects often lead to false detection of stars that disturb the camera pointing correction.The aim of this study was to develop an automated processing method to remove the false image stars in disk-resolved objects in ISS images.The method included the following steps:extracting edges,segmenting boundary arcs,fitting circles and excluding false image stars.The proposed method was tested using 200 ISS images.Preliminary experimental results show that it can remove the false image stars in more than 95%of ISS images with disk-resolved objects in a fully automatic manner,i.e.,outperforming the traditional circle detection based on Circular Hough Transform(CHT)by 17%.In addition,its speed is more than twice as fast as that of the CHT method.It is also more robust(no manual parameter tuning is needed)when compared with CHT.The proposed method was also applied to a set of ISS images of Rhea to eliminate the mismatch in pointing correction in automatic procedure.Experiment results showed that the precision of final astrometry results can be improve by roughly 2 times that of automatic procedure without the method.It proved that the proposed method is helpful in the astrometry of ISS images in a fully automatic manner.

High-resolution Solar Image Reconstruction Based on Non-rigid Alignment

Suppressing the interference of atmospheric turbulence and obtaining observation data with a high spatial resolution are an issue to be solved urgently for ground observations. One way to solve this problem is to perform a statistical reconstruction of short-exposure speckle images. Combining the rapidity of Shift-Add and the accuracy of speckle masking, this paper proposes a novel reconstruction algorithm-NASIR(Non-rigid Alignment based Solar Image Reconstruction). NASIR reconstructs the phase of the object image at each frequency by building a computational model between geometric distortion and intensity distribution and reconstructs the modulus of the object image on the aligned speckle images by speckle interferometry. We analyzed the performance of NASIR by using the correlation coefficient, power spectrum, and coefficient of variation of intensity profile in processing data obtained by the NVST(1 m New Vacuum Solar Telescope). The reconstruction experiments and analysis results show that the quality of images reconstructed by NASIR is close to speckle masking when the seeing is good, while NASIR has excellent robustness when the seeing condition becomes worse. Furthermore, NASIR reconstructs the entire field of view in parallel in one go, without phase recursion and block-by-block reconstruction, so its computation time is less than half that of speckle masking. Therefore, we consider NASIR is a robust and highquality fast reconstruction method that can serve as an effective tool for data filtering and quick look.

A new segmentation algorithm for lunar surface terrain based on CCD images

Terrain classification is one of the critical steps used in lunar geomorphologic analysis and landing site selection. Most of the published works have focused on a Digital Elevation Model （DEM） to distinguish different regions of lunar terrain. This paper presents an algorithm that can be applied to lunar CCD images by blocking and clustering according to image features, which can accurately distinguish between lunar highland and lunar mare. The new algorithm, compared with the traditional algo- rithm, can improve classification accuracy. The new algorithm incorporates two new features and one Tamura texture feature. The new features are generating an enhanced image histogram and modeling the properties of light reflection, which can represent the geological characteristics based on CCD gray level images. These features are ap- plied to identify texture in order to perform image clustering and segmentation by a weighted Euclidean distance to distinguish between lunar mare and lunar highlands. The new algorithm has been tested on Chang＇e-1 CCD data and the testing result has been compared with geological data published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The result has shown that the algorithm can effectively distinguish the lunar mare from highlands in CCD images. The overall accuracy of the proposed algorithm is satisfactory, and the Kappa coefficient is 0.802, which is higher than the result of combining the DEM with CCD images.

Wavelet Analysis of Space Solar Telescope Images

The scientific satellite SST (Space Solar Telescope) is an important research project strongly supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Every day, SST acquires 50 GB of data (after processing) but only 10GB can be transmitted to the ground because of limited time of satellite passage and limited channel volume. Therefore, the data must be compressed before transmission. Wavelets analysis is a new technique developed over the last 10 years, with great potential of application. We start with a brief introduction to the essential principles of wavelet analysis, and then describe the main idea of embedded zerotree wavelet coding, used for compressing the SST images. The results show that this coding is adequate for the job.

Terrain reconstruction from Chang'e-3 PCAM images

The existing terrain models that describe the local lunar surface have limited resolution and accuracy, which can hardly meet the needs of rover navigation,positioning and geological analysis. China launched the lunar probe Chang＇e-3 in December, 2013. Chang＇e-3 encompassed a lander and a lunar rover called ＂Yutu＂（Jade Rabbit）. A set of panoramic cameras were installed on the rover mast. After acquiring panoramic images of four sites that were explored, the terrain models of the local lunar surface with resolution of 0.02 m were reconstructed. Compared with other data sources, the models derived from Chang＇e-3 data were clear and accurate enough that they could be used to plan the route of Yutu.

A new lunar absolute control point: established by images from the landing camera on Chang'e-3

The establishment of a lunar control network is one of the core tasks in selenodesy, in which defining an absolute control point on the Moon is the most im- portant step. However, up to now, the number of absolute control points has been very sparse. These absolute control points have mainly been lunar laser ranging retrore- flectors, whose geographical location can be observed by observations on Earth and also identified in high resolution lunar satellite images. The Chang＇e-3 （CE-3） probe successfully landed on the Moon, and its geographical location has been monitored by an observing station on Earth. Since its positional accuracy is expected to reach the meter level, the CE-3 landing site can become a new high precision absolute control point. We use a sequence of images taken from the landing camera, as well as satellite images taken by CE-1 and CE-2, to identify the location of the CE-3 lander. With its geographical location known, the CE-3 landing site can be established as a new abso- lute control point, which will effectively expand the current area of the lunar absolute control network by 22%, and can greatly facilitate future research in the field of lunar surveying and mapping, as well as selenodesy.

An accelerated direct demodulation method for image reconstruction using spherical data from the hard X-ray modulation telescope

The hard X-ray modulation telescope （HXMT） mission is mainly devoted to performing an all-sky survey at 1- 250 keV with both high sensitivity and high spatial resolution. The observed data reduction as well as the image reconstruction for HXMT can be achieved by using the direct demodulation method （DDM）. However the original DDM is too computationally expensive for multi-dimensional data with high resolution to be employed for HXMT data. We propose an accelerated direct demodulation method especially adapted for data from HXMT. Simulations are also presented to demonstrate this method.

Contour detection in Cassini ISS images based on Hierarchical Extreme Learning Machine and Dense Conditional Random Field

In Cassini ISS(Imaging Science Subsystem)images,contour detection is often performed on disk-resolved objects to accurately locate their center.Thus,contour detection is a key problem.Traditional edge detection methods,such as Canny and Roberts,often extract the contour with too much interior details and noise.Although the deep convolutional neural network has been applied successfully in many image tasks,such as classification and object detection,it needs more time and computer resources.In this paper,a contour detection algorithm based on H-ELM(Hierarchical Extreme Learning Machine)and Dense CRF(Dense Conditional Random Field)is proposed for Cassini ISS images.The experimental results show that this algorithm’s performance is better than both traditional machine learning methods,such as Support Vector Machine,Extreme Learning Machine and even deep Convolutional Neural Network.The extracted contour is closer to the actual contour.Moreover,it can be trained and tested quickly on the general configuration of PC,and thus can be applied to contour detection for Cassini ISS images.

Optimal Approach to SAR Image Despeckling

Speckle filtering of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images while preserving the spatial signal variability (texture and fine structures) still remains a challenge. Many algorithms have been proposed for the SAR imagery despeckling. However, simulated annealing (SA) methods is one of excellent choices currently. A critical problem in the study on SA is to provide appropriate cooling schedules that ensure fast convergence to near-optimal solutions. This paper gives a new necessary and sufficient condition for the cooling schedule so that the algorithm state converges in all probability to the set of global minimum cost states. Moreover, it constructs an appropriate objective function for SAR image despeckling. An experimental result of the actual SAR image processing is obtained.

A coarse-to-fine strategy for the registration of the multi-wavelength high-resolution solar images

The registration of multi-wavelength high-resolution solar images is an important task in the research of solar physics. This paper proposed a coarse-to-fine strategy to realize the accurate registration of high-resolution photospheric images and chromospheric images observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope(NVST) whose field-of-view is about 2′~ 3′, and the spatial resolution can reach 0.1′′after image reconstruction. In this strategy, the full-disk solar images with relatively lower resolution taken by other space-or ground-based telescopes are taken as transition images, and the Fourier-Merlin transform,Template matching and a local statistical information based algorithm are used in combination. After registration, the geometric transformation between multi-wavelength images of NVST are corrected at the level of sub-arcseconds, including the rotation, scaling and translation relations. Two sets of data observed in active regions(i.e., the NOAA 11982 and the NOAA 12673) are used to illustrate our method step by step.The result shows that the registration accuracy can reach less than 1′′. Moreover, this work also has facilitated the combination of high-resolution observations of NVST with the continuum, ultraviolet passbands and magnetic field observations of the Solar Dynamic Observation(SDO), which is highly beneficial to the multi-instrument joint measurement of solar activities.

Obtaining space-based SDO/AIA solar UV and EUV images from ground-based Hαobservations by deep learning

In this work,we explore the mappings from solar images taken in Hα(6563 A)by the Global Oscillation Network Group(GONG)on the ground to those observed in eight different wavelengths(94,131,171,193,211,304,335 and 1600 A)by SDO/AIA in space.Eight mappings are built by training the conditional Generative Adversarial Networks(cGANs)on datasets with 500 paired images,which are[Hα,AIA94],[Hα,AIA131],[Hα,AIA171],[Hα,AIA193],[Hα,AIA211],[Hα,AIA304],[Hα,AIA335]and[Hα,AIA1600].We evaluate the eight trained cGANs models on validation and test datasets with 154-pair images and 327-pair images,respectively.The model generated fake AIA images match the corresponding observed AIA images well on large-scale structures such as large active regions and prominences.But the small-scale flare loops and filament threads are difficult to reconstruct.Four quantitative comparisons are carried out on the validation and test datasets to score the mappings.We find that the model-generated images in 304 and 1600 A match the corresponding observed images best.This exploration suggests that the cGANs are promising methods for mappings between ground-based Ha and space-based EUV/UV images,while some improvements are necessary.

Transverse Velocity Field Measurements in High-resolution Solar Images Based on Deep Learning

To address the problem of the low accuracy of transverse velocity field measurements for small targets in highresolution solar images,we proposed a novel velocity field measurement method for high-resolution solar images based on PWCNet.This method transforms the transverse velocity field measurements into an optical flow field prediction problem.We evaluated the performance of the proposed method using the Hαand TiO data sets obtained from New Vacuum Solar Telescope observations.The experimental results show that our method effectively predicts the optical flow of small targets in images compared with several typical machine-and deeplearning methods.On the Hαdata set,the proposed method improves the image structure similarity from 0.9182 to0.9587 and reduces the mean of residuals from 24.9931 to 15.2818;on the TiO data set,the proposed method improves the image structure similarity from 0.9289 to 0.9628 and reduces the mean of residuals from 25.9908 to17.0194.The optical flow predicted using the proposed method can provide accurate data for the atmospheric motion information of solar images.The code implementing the proposed method is available on https://github.com/lygmsy123/transverse-velocity-field-measurement.

Fast compression and reconstruction of astronomical images based on compressed sensing

With the fast increase in the resolution of astronomical images, the question of how to process and transfer such large images has become a key issue in astronomy. We propose a new real-time compression and fast reconstruction algorithm for astronomical images based on compressive sensing techniques. We first reconstruct tile Original signal with fewer measurements, according to its compressibility. Then, based on the characteristics of astronomical images, we apply Daubechies orthogonal wavelets to obtain a sparse representation. A matrix representing a random Fourier ensembleis used to obtain a sparse representation in a lower dimensional space. For reconstructing the image, we propose a novel minimum total variation with block addptive sensing to balance the accuracy and eomputation time. Our experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can efficiently reconstruct colorful astronomicai images with high resolution and improve the applicability of compressed sensing.