SATELLITE IMAGERY COMPRESSION

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP DATA COMPRESSIONTECHNIQUES USED TO COMPRESS DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE DATA FROM THE NATIONAL CLIMATIC DATA CENTER (NCDC) ARCHIVES SUCH THAT THE RESULTING DATA CAN BE READILY USED WITHIN THE LIMITED RESOURCES OF PC/AT SYSTEMS. THE JOINT PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERTS GROUP (JPEG) HAS DEVELOPED ANINTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR THE COMPRESSION OF CONTINUOUS TONE DIGITAL IMAGES. THE DRAFT JPEG STANDARD IS NOT WITHOUTLOSS BUT IT DOES SUPPORT HIERARCHICAL ENCODINGS. HIERARCHICAL ENCODING COMPRESSES IMAGES SO THAT LOWER RESOLUTION VERSIONS CAN BE RETRIEVED BY COMBINING THE LOWER RESOLUTION VERSION WITH INCREMENTAL DIFFERENCES. THE PROPOSED JPEG STANDARD IS A LEADING CANDIDATE FOR THE NCDC PROBLEMS. HOWEVER, WE INTENDED TO IDENTIFY EXISTING ALTERNATIVES AND COMPARE THEIR ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES TO THE PROPOSED JPEG STANDARD. TWO TECHNOLOGIES TO BE INVESTIGATED ARE "WAVELETS" AND "FRACTAL COMPRESSION". THE FINAL RESULT OF THIS PROJECT WILL BE A COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS THE HIGH VOLUME ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE DATA AT NCDC TO BECOME READILY USEABLE BY PC/AT COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS.