PROCESSING AND DISPLAY OF LARGE-SCALE INOSPHERIC IMAGES

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO THE DIGITIZATION, PROCESSING, AND DISPLAY OF AFGL ALL-SKY IMAGES IS PROPOSED. WE FIRST PLAN TO EVALUATE AND COMPARE TWO METHODS OF PRODUCING DIGITAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE IMAGES: VIDEO FRAME-GRABBING AND DIGITAL SCANNING. ACCURACY, RESO LUTION, NOISE LEVELS, COST AND COVENIENCE WILL BE CONSIDERED. AS PART OF THIS EFFORT, WE WILL BUILD UP A SMALL LIBRARY OF DIGITIZED ALL-SKY IMAGES. WE WILL ALSO DEVELOP SOFTWARE TO PERFORM A SEQUENCE OF TRANSFORMATIONS WHICH MAP THE DIGITAL IMAGES FROM CAMERA COORDINATES TO GEOGRAPHIC OR GEOMAGNETIC COORDIANTES AND FINALLY TO A DISPLAY SURFACE. NUMEROUS DETAILS SUCH AS REGISTRATION,, CALIBRATION, AND RESAMPLING WILL BE ATTENDED TO. DISPLAY FORMATS WHICH MAXIMIZE THE VISUALIZATION OF USEFUL INFORMATION WILL BE DESIGNED AND SOFTWARE TO GENERATE THE DISPLAYS WILL BE PRODUCED. THE PRIMARY DISPLAY FORMAT WILL BE A COMPOSITE VIEW OF ALLL-SKY IMAGES SUPERIMPOSED ON GEOGRAPHIC OR GEOMAGETIC COORDINATES WITH COASTLINES SHOWN. THREE DIMENSIONAL VIEWS AND ANIMATION WILL ALSO BE CONSIDERED. WE WILL LOOK AT WAYS THAT DATA OBTAINED FROM OTHER SESORS, SUCH AS THOSE ABOARD THE HILAT SATELLLITE, CAN BE CORRELATED AD DISPLAYED WITH THE ALL-SKY IMAGES. ATTENTION WILL ALSO BE PAID TO THE DATA MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS THAT WOULD ARISE FROM ANY ATTEMPT TO PROCESS LARGE NUMBERS OF ALL-SKY IMAGES.