Automatic recognition of low earth orbit objects from image sequences

This paper presents an approach for automatic recognition of interest objects from the low earth orbit that are visible in astronomical images. The main interest objects are satellites, but various objects, such as planes, stars, can be identified. The proposed technique starts with background estimation and removal. Then, potential objects are identified by labeling the background free image. Relevant features are computed for each individual object and used for classification, which is performed with a decision tree. Real and relevant data was used to evaluate the performance of this methodology and to determine its main strengths and weaknesses.