Abstract
Laser-optical ground stations play an important role for satellite
laser communication and satellite laser ranging (SLR). The safe
operation of lasers in public airspace, which usually requires
approval by legal entities, requires reliable, redundant, and
independent systems for airborne object detection to avoid a
potentially hazardous laser exposition. In this work, we propose an
algorithm based on classical image filtering and thresholding to
detect aircraft in images taken with a thermal infrared camera. The
algorithm is optimized and evaluated with an image dataset acquired by
the infrared camera mounted to SLR station miniSLR located in
Stuttgart, Germany. Despite its simplicity and efficiency (7 ms
for an image with 640×512 pixels on a standard consumer PCU),
we find that the proposed algorithm has a high accuracy, yielding a
99.8% correct classification of images. Although laser safety systems
require several independent aircraft detection methods, the proposed
algorithm might be a valuable contribution for companies and
institutes with the need to operate lasers in public airspace.