System and method for significant dust detection and enhancement of dust images over land and ocean

• US 7,379,592 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 05/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The United States of America As Represented By The Secretary of Agriculture
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Miller, Steven D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella; Matthew C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TUCKER, WESLEY J
• Application Number:
  US10/885,526
• Publication Number:
  US 20050012035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,427 Days
• Field of Search: 382173-180, 382162-167, 382/254, 382/275, 250/265, 250/226
• US Class Current: 382/173
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/00 Meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A new processing capability for dust enhancement over land or water using image data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor (SeaWiFS) has been developed for Naval meteorology/oceanography (MetOc) operations support. The data are captured via direct broadcast high-resolution picture transmission (HRPT) at Navy Regional Centers in Rota, Bahrain, and Yokosuka, and processed at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey. The raw data are calibrated, corrected for missing lines and clutter, corrected for molecular scatter contamination, and enhanced through multispectral combination to yield value added products. The processing has been automated completely such that products, generated upon receipt of data, are hosted upon a password protected website typically 60 to 90 minutes from time of initial capture. This invention summarizes the SeaWiFS instrument capabilities, the protocol followed for automated near real-time processing, a physical basis for the NRL enhancements, and specific examples of the products with extension to over-land dust enhancement as enabled by MODIS. It closes with a glimpse of the potential utility of these products from the perspective of the warfighter.

Claims

1. A system for detecting and enhancing meteorological imagery of dust clouds over land and water, said system comprising:

a collector for storing multispectral optical-spectrum imagery having multiple channels relating to different wavelengths across the visible, shortwave infrared, and thermal infrared portions of the optical spectrum; and

a processor coupled to said collector, said processor operable to receives the multispectral optical-spectrum imagery and processes the digital data by,

performing a numerical atmosnheric correction for removal of molecular scatter within all of the visible-spectrum channels, based on radiative transfer calculations stored in pre-computed look-up tables and indexed as a function of solar and sensor geometry,

determining the pixel background for each pixel of the multispectral optical-spectrum image by combining known earth location with a terrestrial database,

employing a background-dependent algorithm to compute the dust enhancement parameter Δ

,

displaying the multispectral optical-spectrum imagery coupled to the processor, said displaying the multispectral optical-spectrum imagery comprises a red, blue and green color for displaying the visible light spectrum via a hue/saturation decomposed color technique, creating a false color composite, wherein said false color composite is created by loading the background-dependent D variable into a red color gun, loading log-scaled percent-reflectance into blue and green color guns of said false color composite, and the resultant imagery rendered depicts atmospheric dust as visually enhanced in red/pink tonalities.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a pixel is determined to have a land background.