Tracking cloud structures in meteorological sequences using an enhanced modal matching algorithm

Alessandro Mecocci; Paolo Bussotti

doi:10.1117/12.364197

16 September 1999 Tracking cloud structures in meteorological sequences using an enhanced modal matching algorithm

Alessandro Mecocci, Paolo Bussotti

Proceedings Volume 3821, Environmental Sensing and Applications; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.364197
Event: Industrial Lasers and Inspection (EUROPTO Series), 1999, Munich, Germany

Abstract

Weather satellites play a key role in modern meteorology and give an undoubted contribution to a correct weather forecast. Image sequences transmitted by geostationary satellites like METEOSAT permit to track the temporal evolution of typical clouds structures (vortices, fronts) associated to depression phenomena. A fully automated system for clouds tracking is an important challenge to image processing applied to meteorology. This paper proposes an enhancement of modal matching techniques as a more suitable alternative to optical flow-based or parametrical methods. Modal matching permits a robust point-feature association among strongly deformed shapes, as well as a highly detailed description of complex shapes. Modal expansions of virtual elastic bodies associated to the shapes provide coarse-to-fine descriptions of them: pairing homologous low frequency modes and discarding noise and sampling error affected high frequency ones gives a robust basis for vibration-based point correspondence. The classical technique requires dense sampling for strong modes similarity: this paper tackles the problem of compensating the degenerative effects of low sampling by efficiently controlling modes pairing and by forcing the locality constraint through balls tracking the contours: since mismatch probability is higher in particular localized areas, balls actually work as a shield, letting modal match perform reliably inside them.

Citation Download Citation

Alessandro Mecocci and Paolo Bussotti "Tracking cloud structures in meteorological sequences using an enhanced modal matching algorithm", Proc. SPIE 3821, Environmental Sensing and Applications, (16 September 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.364197

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