A Smeared Astronomical Image Registration Method Based on Imaging Mechanism Constraints
Han Wang, Zhihua Shen, Siyang Chen, T Zhang, Zhe Kang, Bin Lin, Xiaohu Zhang · IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters · 2024
Astronomical image registration plays an important role in space surveillance tasks. However, long-term observation introduces challenges such as smearing, which significantly impact the effectiveness of current image registration techniques. In this letter, a novel method for registering smeared astronomical images without additional preprocessing is developed for ground-based space surveillance. Initially, star points are extracted and classified based on an analysis of the imaging mechanisms behind smearing. Subsequently, several of the most affected stars are selected to form stable triangles, facilitating the search for initial homogenous points. Finally, based on the initial outcomes, we straightforwardly proceed to create and match normal triangles. By combining all the homogenous points, homography transformation can be solved and optimized. The proposed method takes less than 30 ms to process two affected images, each with a resolution of$3056 \times 3056$pixels. It achieves superior levels of accuracy and precision with less time than three triangle-based approaches. The results show that the method can markedly enhance the efficacy of space surveillance for long-duration observations.