1. The Comet Project:
Image Processing
s/k
Keith Hawkins
Sheena Patel

2. Objective
create a program to filter through images taken from the SOHO satellite and locate comets
using MATLAB
matrix laboratory
Integrated image processing toolbars s

3. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
SOHO
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory k
studies the sun and its solar winds 24/7
used images from the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO)

4. Comets Comets small, irregularly-shaped astronomical bodies
mixture of small grains and frozen gases
highly eccentric orbits
unique structure built of nucleus and tails k

5. Concepts s

6. Step 1 load pictures from a directory
isolate the date and time from the picture name
calculate the time between images
store the date, time, and elapsed time for later use s

7. Step 2 load the images from the directory
apply filters to eliminate noise and solar flares and transform the image into a matrix of 0s and 1s s

8. Step 3 find any white pixels in the images from Step 2
find any white pixels in the images from Step 2
calculate all possible paths between the stars/comets of one image and the stars/comets of the next
calculate distances and apply distance and angle constraints k

9. Step 4
take the possible paths between sets of 2 images and string possible comet trajectories between 4 images
apply more distance and angle constraints k

10. Step 5 take possible trajectories from Step 4
display images with highlighted “comet” k

11. Step 6 connect the first 5 steps
coordinate inputs of each step from the outputs of the previous steps
be able to input directory and number of images into Step 6 and end up with the highlighted comets of Step 5
print final comet images s

12. Comets from May 6, 2001 1 2
Goal s 3 4

13. Conclusion Conclusion Comets:
suite of programs able to find already known comets
preliminary analysis shows the program was able to spot a comet found and registered on July 18, 2008
Optimization
runs through steps 1-4 in 8 minutes with 103 images
steps 4-5 take a considerably longer amount of time k

14. Applications and Future Work Proposals
monitor comets around the sun
Proposals for Future Work:
less programs
increase optimization
modification for other purposes

15. Acknowledgements Previous Members Joey Starnes Daniel Jacobs
Ohio Supercomputer Center’s SI
Staff
Barbara Woodall
Elaine Pritchard
Dr. B. Alan Chalker II
Aaron Lafferty
Daniel Eyster
Brianna Austin
Ohio Supercomputer Center’s SI Sponsors
Our Parents and Family

16. ¿¿Any Questions??