Quantifying uncertainties in signal position in non-resolved object images: Application to space object observation

Abstract

Charged Coupled Devices (CCDs) and subsequently Complementary metaloxidesemiconductor (CMOS) detectors revolutionized scientific imaging. On both the CCD and CMOS detector, the incoming photons release photo electrons that are then read out to produce an image. Unfortunately the generated images are degraded by inevitable noise introduced by the stochastic nature of the electron emission process and the read out process. Moreover, in many applications,

Noise estimation and probability of detection in non-resolved images: Application to space object observation

“…As the CCD image generation relies on photon absorption and electron emission, the resulting image is a stochastic process. Furthermore, to detect the object and find its centroid Hagen and Dereniak (2008); Sanson and Frueh (2019), the background has to be estimated and needs to be either locally or globally subtracted to the image Houtz and Frueh (2018). Background estimation itself introduces statistical error Merline and Howell (1995).…”

“…It is directly related for instance to the variance in the estimated space object position Sanson and Frueh (2019). Space Situational Awareness (SSA) heavily relies on ground observations to detect and track space objects.…”