Meteor observation with the SOURCE CubeSat – Developing a simulation to test on-board meteor detection algorithms

The scientific mission objectives of the Stuttgart Operated University Research CubeSat for Evaluation and Education are meteor observation, measurement of the lower Earth's atmosphere during re-entry as well as technology demonstrations. The meteor observation is done by pointing a camera towards Earth and continuously taking images during Eclipse. Since it is not possible to downlink all images, an on-board detection algorithm is necessary and mission critical. Therefore, this algorithm needs to be tested thoroughly. Realistic test data showing meteors from orbit is needed to properly develop and test the algorithm. Existing videos, provided by the Planetary Exploration Research Center, captured from the ISS are used as a baseline but are not sufficient to test the algorithm. The videos do not have the diversity of meteors needed and the meteor properties are not settable which makes it difficult to test the detection algorithm in as many scenarios as possible. Therefore, an artificial meteor program was developed to simulate meteors with given properties as perceived from a meteor observation system in a low Earth orbit. Here, we present the details of the artificial meteor program, its working principle and how we tested an algorithm for meteor detection. The user can choose between different background videos, the existing ISS videos from PERC or the self-generated videos. Each different background is used to test a different aspect of the meteor detection algorithm. The ISS videos from PERC provide more diverse backgrounds than the self-generated videos with e.g., clouds and lightning. For these self-generated videos, a program is developed to take image sections of NASA’s Black Marble and putting them frame by frame together into a video. These videos are more suitable for simulating satellite rotation and camera properties. Independent of the background video, settable meteor properties contain important characteristics of a meteor like the light curve, brightness, speed, direction and shape. Additionally, the user can choose the meteor position in the video frame, in which frame it appears and which distance it covers. Furthermore, distortion settings can be applied which contain airplanes with adjustable parameters and scalable noise. Only a properly working meteor detection algorithm leads to a success of a mission critical part of the SOURCE CubeSat. Therefore, the development of this artificial meteor generation program is crucial. Furthermore, this technology demonstration of developing and especially testing a meteor detection algorithm will enable future space-based missions for meteor observations