HYPERSPECTRAL FEATURE DETECTION ONBOARD THE EARTH OBSERVING ONE SPACECRAFT USING SUPERPIXEL SEGMENTATION AND ENDMEMBER EXTRACTION

We present a demonstration of onboard hyperspectral image processing with the potential to reduce mission downlink requirements. The system detects spectral endmembers and uses them to map units of surface material. This summarizes the content of the scene, reveals spectral anomalies warranting fast response, and reduces data volume by two orders of magnitude. We have integrated this system into the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment [1] for operational use onboard the Earth Observing One (EO-1) spacecraft. The system does not require prior knowledge about spectra of interest. We report on a series of trial overflights in which identical spacecraft commands are effective for autonomous spectral discovery and mapping for varied target features, scenes and imaging conditions. 1