Automatic Tracking Algorithm of Solar G-Band Bright Points

In this paper, we present an automatic tracking algorithm to study the evolution of G-band bright points (GBPs) in the solar photosphere. A data set of 142 G-band speckled images obtained with the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) on October 19, 2005 is used. The LMD algorithm is used to identify the GBPS in every image of the sequence. A three dimensional space-time cube is adopted to track the isolated and nonisolated GBPs. The three dimensional cylindrical tubes stand for the isolated GBPs and the three dimensional coral-like structures stand for the nonisolated GBPs. They are labeled with 26-adjacent method. The algorithm is useful and efficient for observing the whole evolution process of GBPs. The lifetime distribution of GBPs is fitted with exponential function well. The maximum lifetime of isolated GBPs is only 20 minutes, but that of nonisolated GBPs can reach 70 minutes through the whole image sequence.