Space all-sky imaging with a high angular resolution
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Claire Dollet; Francois Mignard; Albert Bijaoui
- Source
- SPIE Proceedings.
- Subject
- Physics
Stars
Cardinal point
Wavelet
Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Wavelet transform
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Image resolution
Thresholding
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Space exploration
Image compression
Remote sensing
- Language
- ISSN
- 0277-786X
Large surveys at high angular resolution have a lot of interest for astrophysical studies. Their achievements with space missions imply a significant data transmission if a resolution close to 0.1 arcsec is wished. A satisfying telemetry rate is conceivable thanks to a selection of the significant information on board. An image composed of detected stars is first subtracted. A thresholding is then applied in order to keep significant wavelet coefficients. Coding these bright stars as a catalogue with a position and a magnitude estimated on board is less expensive for the telemetry than the coding of their images on the focal plane. Tests were carried out with the technical features of the European astrometric Gaia mission. The consequence of such a lossly compression on the restored images are illustrated. At the end of the space mission, thanks to a combination of fields with different orientations, an improvement of 2 to 3 magnitudes for the detection and a higher resolution are obtained. Even though this approach showed us some difficulties and limits for the Gaia mission, it allowed us to conceive a specific mission dedicated to a full-sky imaging at high angular resolution.