Data compression experiments with high resolution solar images

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · American Astronomical Society, Bulletin; (United States)

OSTI ID:6613828

Shine, R A; Majani, E E

High resolution movies are a critical tool for solar physics but they generate enormous amounts of data. Data storage and transfers can be a major bottleneck for observations and analysis on the ground but it becomes especially acute for solar instruments on small spacecraft with limited telemetry and on board storage capabilities. Recently there has been a great deal of progress in data compression techniques, especially in the area of lossy' techniques for continuous-tone images. These have the potential of reducing the storage and telemetry requirements of images by a factor of 10 or more while maintaining adequate quality for visual display. We have experimented with lossless and lossy techniques for a variety of photospheric, chromosperic, and coronal images. Algorithms used include the baseline JPEG (Joint Photographics Expert Group), the EPIC (Efficient Pyramid Image Coder), and the HCOMPRESS method. We indeed find that images and movies can reproduced from data compressed by factors from 10 to 20 which are virtually indistinguishable from the original to the eye. However, a visually acceptable image may not be adequate for more detailed analysis of solar movies, such as tracking structures, of the combination of images to form magnetograms or dopplegrams. Hence we have also experimented with analyzing data with different levels of compression to establish guidelines on the amount of compression tolerable for various types of analysis that might be performed on solar movies.

• OSTI ID: 6613828
• Report Number(s): CONF-930189-; CODEN: AASBAR
• Journal Information: American Astronomical Society, Bulletin; (United States), Vol. 24:4; Conference: 181. meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), Phoenix, AZ (United States), 3-7 Jan 1993; ISSN 0002-7537
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
IMAGES
RESOLUTION
SUN
ALGORITHMS
CHROMOSPHERE
COMPRESSION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PHOTOSPHERE
SOLAR CORONA
TELEMETRY
ATMOSPHERES
COMMUNICATIONS
DATA
DATA TRANSMISSION
INFORMATION
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
NUMERICAL DATA
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
STARS
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
STELLAR CORONAE
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)
990301 - Information Handling- Data Handling- (1992-)