Search

This paper proposes three different distribution strategies for very large 3D image deconvolution algorithms. The deconvolution problem is generic and tailored for spatio-spectral 3D image reconstruction. The three proposed algorithms for large-scale data are distributed in the sense that both the storage and the computations are distributed over several compute nodes. As a result, the workload is drastically reduced compared to a centralized approach where the storage and the computations are handled by a single compute node. The proposed algorithms are validated through experiments on simulated astronomical images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an imaging capability of the Japan-led X-ray observatory Hitomi, formerly known as ASTRO-H. It carries four scientific instruments of Soft X-ray Imager (SXI: CCD camera), Hard X-ray Imager (HXI), Soft X-ray Spectrometer, and Soft Gamma-ray Detector, allowing us to perform a wide-band high-sensitive imaging spectroscopy. We highlight the specification and the performance we obtained with primarily regard to X-ray and soft gamma-ray imaging. Primary imaging instrument SXI utilizes four large-area X-ray CCDs positioned at the focal plane of Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT-I). Imaging area with a size of 62 mm square makes a largest field of view (FoV) of 38′ square among the focal plane X-ray detectors, which enables us to observe extended objects such as clusters of galaxies and galactic supernova remnants with a single pointing in the soft X-ray band from 0.4 to 12 keV. HXI employs the hybrid sensors consisting of four layers of double-sided silicon strip detectors and a single layer of cadmium telluride double-sided strip detector covering the energy band from 5 to 80 keV. After the successful launch of Hitomi on February 17th, 2016 and the subsequent start up of all the instruments, imaging performance of both imagers are verified as expected from the ground calibration tests. The position of the active galactic nucleus of the central galaxy NGC1275 in the Perseus cluster is precisely seen by SXI, while the positional difference of line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the hot intracluster medium is measured inside by SXS. From the observation of Crab nebula, we obtain the on-pulse hard X-ray image with HXI as well as the time-averaged image in which the torus of the pulsar wind nebula can be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circum-galactic medium consists in gas orbiting around galaxies, whose faintness prevents any complete and easy detection. A powerful tool to detect such pattern can be found in using hyperspectral imaging. Nevertheless, detection in hyperspectral datacubes faces various problems, including well-fitted signal and noise descriptions to ensure further discrimination. A specificity of astronomical images resides in dealing with faint and very noisy signals. In this paper, we introduce a new constrained generalized likelihood ratio test adapted to the problem and a compound test to exploit most of the available information. We also investigate the use of both spatial information and multiple observations on a single scene, to enhance robustness. Numerical experiments on synthetic data are performed to quantify the gain of the different approaches. Finally, results on real hyperspectral astronomical data are presented, which may map for the first time observation of the circum-galactic medium around faint and distant galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dawn spacecraft Framing Camera (FC) acquired over 31,300 clear filter images of Ceres with a resolution of about 35 m/pxl during the eleven cycles in the Low Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) phase between December 16 2015 and August 8 2016. We ortho-rectified the images from the first four cycles and produced a global, high-resolution, uncontrolled photomosaic of Ceres. This global mosaic is the basis for a high-resolution Ceres atlas that consists of 62 tiles mapped at a scale of 1:250,000. The nomenclature used in this atlas was proposed by the Dawn team and was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The full atlas is available to the public through the Dawn Geographical Information System (GIS) web page [ http://dawngis.dlr.de/atlas ] and will become available through the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) ( http://pdssbn.astro.umd.edu/ ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high resolution image showing fine structures is crucial for understanding the nature of solar prominence. In this paper, high resolution imaging of solar prominence on the New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) is introduced, using speckle masking. Each step of the data reduction especially the image alignment is discussed. Accurate alignment of all frames and the non-isoplanatic calibration of each image are the keys for a successful reconstruction. Reconstructed high resolution images from NVST also indicate that under normal seeing condition, it is feasible to carry out high resolution observations of solar prominence by a ground-based solar telescope, even in the absence of adaptive optics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astronomical images from optical photometric surveys are typically contaminated with transient artifacts such as cosmic rays, satellite trails and scattered light. We have developed and tested an algorithm that removes these artifacts using a deep, artifact free, static sky coadd image built up through the median combination of point spread function (PSF) homogenized, overlapping single epoch images. Transient artifacts are detected and masked in each single epoch image through comparison with an artifact free, PSF-matched simulated image that is constructed using the PSF-corrected, model fitting catalog from the artifact free coadd image together with the position variable PSF model of the single epoch image. This approach works well not only for cleaning single epoch images with worse seeing than the PSF homogenized coadd, but also the traditionally much more challenging problem of cleaning single epoch images with better seeing. In addition to masking transient artifacts, we have developed an interpolation approach that uses the local PSF and performs well in removing artifacts whose widths are smaller than the PSF full width at half maximum, including cosmic rays, the peaks of saturated stars and bleed trails. We have tested this algorithm on Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data and present performance metrics. More generally, our algorithm can be applied to any survey which images the same part of the sky multiple times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical crescent moon detection is a new subject in astronomical image processing. Astronomers take photos with valuable astronomical calculations using CCD cameras and telescopes. Crescent moon might not be visible in such photos, so they must be enhanced. For this purpose, we apply common image processing methods on crescent moon images such as power operator, gamma transformation, global and local histogram equalization, POSHE, CLAHE, local enhancement, gain/offset correction, homomorphic filtering, SSR, MSR, MSRCR, wavelet and curvelet transformations. Second, we use our new methods like PB, POSP, HShistV , CurvHShistV and local brightness intensity enhancement to detect the crescent. Then we evaluate and compare the outputs of these algorithms by standard subjective evaluation tests. Finally, we conclude that these methods can give us enhanced images in which the crescent moon can be seen by human observers. We introduce our new toolbox which is named CMD, a standalone tool developed in Matlab for Critical Crescent Moon Detection using the above techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new profile recovery method which is called time–frequency peak filtering (TFPF) is introduced to low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) astronomical fiber spectral signals. TFPF is an effective noise removal method, which is essentially instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation based on Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD). To achieve a better noise suppression result of spectral signal, we propose an improved TFPF, which combines the pseudo WVD (PWVD) and the smoothed pseudo WVD (SPWVD). The proposed method produces a data fusion from the outcomes of PWVD and SPWVD to sharpen the time–frequency distribution and adopts a sine function to eliminate interference points in time–frequency domain. We test our method on both simulated and observed data based on the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST) project. The results show good performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to restore images with details preserving and ringing suppressing. A gradient minimization based image restoration method is proposed for astronomical imagery. We consider no prior knowledge of noise statistics for image deconvolution, meanwhile, L0 gradient measure is also treated as the regularization term to reduce ringing artifacts. According to experiments of real image, the proposed algorithm could produce a high-quality result with ringing suppression. Comparing with other algorithms via visual effect and image quality assessment, the proposed algorithm performs best in balancing details restoration and ringing reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work devotes to the image deconvolution problem that restores clear image from its blurred and noisy measurements with little prior about the blur. A deconvolution method based on sparse and redundant representation theory is developed in this paper. It firstly represents the blur and image over different redundant dictionaries and imposes sparsity constraint to their representation coefficients respectively, then alternately estimates them using an iterative algorithm employing optimization technique. Experimental results on astronomical images show that the proposed method can achieve as good performance as the method requiring a known blur, which demonstrates its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Scripted E-merlin Rfi-mitigation PipelinE for iNTerferometry (SERPent) is an automated reduction and RFI-mitigation procedure utilising the SumThreshold methodology (Offringa et al., 2010a), originally developed for the LOFAR pipeline. SERPent is written in the Parseltongue language enabling interaction with the Astronomical Image Processing Software (AIPS) program. Moreover, SERPent is a simple ‘out of the box’ Python script, which is easy to set up and is free of compilers. In addition to the flagging of RFI affected visibilities, the script also flags antenna zero-amplitude dropouts and Lovell telescope phase calibrator stationary scans inherent to the e-MERLIN system. Both the flagging and computational performances of SERPent are presented here, for e-MERLIN commissioning datasets for both L-band (1.3–1.8 GHz) and C-band (4–8 GHz) observations. RFI typically amounts to <20%–25% for the more problematic L-band observations and <5% for the generally RFI quieter C-band. The level of RFI detection and flagging is more accurate and delicate than visual manual flagging, with the output immediately ready for AIPS calibration. SERPent is fully parallelised and has been tested on a range of computing systems. The current flagging rate is at 110 GB day−1 on a ‘high-end’ computer (16 CPUs, 100 GB memory) which amounts to ∼6.9 GB CPU−1 day−1, with an expected increase in performance when e-MERLIN has completed its commissioning. The refining of automated reduction and calibration procedures is essential for the e-MERLIN legacy projects and future interferometers such as the SKA and the associated pathfinders (MeerKAT and ASKAP), where the vast data sizes (>TB) make traditional astronomer interactions unfeasible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]