Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 131, 371-375

Solar image segmentation by use of mean field fast annealing

E. Bratsolis^1,2 - M. Sigelle³

Send offprint request: E. Bratsolis (ebrats@atlas.uoa.gr)

1 - Astronomical Institute, National Observatory of Athens, P.O. Box 20048, GR-11810 Athens, Greece
2 - Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Department of Physics, University of Athens, GR-15784 Athens, Greece
3 - École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Département Images, 46 rue Barrault, F-75634 Paris Cedex 13, France

Received September 8, 1997; accepted February 23, 1998

Abstract:

We present a "continuous'' analysis of a solar ${\rm H}_{\alpha}$ image in order to address the problem of image segmentation. Our approach is based on combinatorial optimization methods and in particular on Mean Field Fast Annealing (MFFA). Mean-field theory gives a deterministic nature to our algorithm while its efficiency is improved by a fast cooling schedule. We show how this method can be used to separate efficiently the regions of different solar activity giving a tool for a future automated recognition and classification of sunspots.

Key words: sunspots -- methods: data analysis