Abstract Hyperspectral Image Compression on Reconfigurable Platforms

Abstract

NASA’s satellites currently do not make use of image compression techniques during data transmission to earth because of limitations in the available platforms. Yet as satellites are built with an ever-larger number of sensors, the amount of data captured by a satellite is beginning to overwhelm the bandwidth capabilities of the transmission channels. Current software implementations are unable to meet the necessary computational and power requirements for use in a satellite. At the same time hardware platforms lack the required flexibility needed for post-launch modifications. With the advent of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Adaptive Computing technologies it is now possible to construct a system, which compresses the data stream before down linking. By developing image compression routines on a reconfigurable platform, it is possible to obtain the computational performance required to compress a satellite’s data in real time and at the same time retain the ability to modify the system post-launch. Our work is part of a NASA-sponsored study on the design and implementation of FPGA-based Hyperspectral Image Compression algorithms for use i