Star centroid extraction in the image sequences of a discrete detector array on geostationary orbit

Abstract

Satellite image positioning and registration is a key technology for geostationary Earth observation satellites. Our work can provide powerful prior information for the positioning and registration of Earth observation images. We simulate the process of geostationary orbit satellites observing the space region with discrete detector array, generate star observation sequence images considering various situation, and study the high precision subpixel star centroid extraction algorithm. Under the condition that the star trajectory passes through the pixel, the proposed algorithm achieves the extraction error of less than 0.5 pixels.