Weak GEO Satellite Target Detection Based on Image Transformation and Energy Accumulation

Liangchao Guo, Wenlong Zhang, Zi Wang, Xiaoliang Sun, Yang Shang

Abstract: In the star images taken by the ground observatory, due to atmospheric distortion, long exposure time, and long imaging distance, some geostationary (GEO) satellite targets in the image are small in size and weak in energy. Existing methods all have troubles in dealing such cases. The paper proposes a novel GEO satellite target detection algorithm based on image transformation and energy accumulation. Firstly, the LSD line detection algorithm is used to detect the star stripe areas and eliminate them. Secondly, the star stripe is used to match the adjacent images in original images and the movement of the telescope in the vertical direction of the star stripe is eliminated via image transformation. Lastly, the energy accumulation algorithm is used to detect the location of the targets on the transformed image sequences. Experimental results on image sequences show that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect weak energy GEO satellite targets and its performance is better than the existing algorithms.