Space Surveillance

Space targets detection refers to satellites, but also includes a variety of space debris, such as booster rockets and protective shields, as well as other kinds of comic flying objects, such as comets and asteroids (Wang et al.).

To detect and track space debris, telescopes and radars are typically used, resulting in multiple point measurements, which have to be processed in order to discriminate detections from clutter.

This task in complex space background is one of the hot challenges in space field research for two main reason:

• Sensors can be either placed on ground stations or satellites making the target at few hundred kilometers. Thus, the distance with the sensors makes the target appear in the image plane as a weak point that corresponds only one or several pixels providing no edges, textures or shape information.
• Due to cloud clutter and other background clutter, the target is often submerged in the background with the intrinsic noise of the sensors, background noise, dark current noise and space radiation noise. The space-based images are then affected by the severe space environment.

This challenging context makes weak target detection of great challenge requiring both specific sensors and target detection methods.

References

M. Wang, J. Chen, F. Gao, J. Zhao, “Space moving target detection using time domain feature”, Optoelectronics Letters, Volume 14 No. 1, January 2018.