Result: On-board signal processing for space-based meteor monitoring

MeteorWatch is a concept for the observation of small meteor events from a microsatellite in low earth orbit. To achieve high spatial resolution (about 1 km), fast update rate (up to 50 Hz), and large instantaneous coverage (107 km2), a distributed sensor is appropriate. The MeteorWatch sensor design has about 300 independent detection modules linked by a data bus to a central controller and image processor. Each detection module has a camera, digitizer, controller, image preprocessor, and bus interface. In operation, each detection module decides on the probability that a particular image has a meteor. Meteor event rates are expected to be low compared to the data rate, so that preprocessing at the detector modules reduces traffic on the data bus to the central controller. Image sequences with probable meteors are sent to the central controller for further processing and extraction of the meteor parameters. This paper gives an overview of MeteorWatch and describes the image processing approach, including partitioning of the tasks between the detection modules and the central image processor, the selection of clutter-rejection algorithms and the limits of detection for small meteors.