Methods of constructing vector fields of natural objects’ movements based on a series of consecutive satellite images are considered: cloud formations in the atmosphere based on a series of consecutive images obtained from geostationary satellites; water masses and ice fields based on a series of images from low-orbit satellites; using the example of the evolution of bipolar spots, the trajectories of trial corks in the Solar photosphere are constructed based on the data of sounders installed on heliophysical satellite observatories.

Finding the formation mechanisms for bipolar configurations of a strong local magnetic field under control of the relatively weak global magnetic field of the Sun is a key problem of the physics of solar activity. This study is aimed at discriminating whether the magnetic field or fluid motion plays a primary, active role in this process. The very origin and early development stage of Active Region 12548 are investigated based on Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager observations of 2016 May 20-25. Full-vector magnetic and velocity fields are analyzed in parallel. The leading and trailing magnetic polarities are found to grow asymmetrically in terms of their amplitude, magnetic flux, and the time variation of these quantities. The leading-polarity magnetic element originates as a compact feature against the background of a distributed trailing-polarity field, with an already existing trailing-polarity magnetic element. No signs of strong horizontal magnetic fields are detected between the two magnetic poles. No predominant upflow between their future locations precedes the origin of this bipolar magnetic region (BMR); instead, upflows and downflows are mixed, with some prevalence of downflows. Any signs of a large-scale horizontal divergent flow from the area where the BMR develops are missing; in contrast, a normal supergranulation and mesogranulation pattern is preserved. This scenario of early BMR evolution is in strong contradiction with the expectations based on the model of a rising Omega-shaped loop of a flux tube of strong magnetic field, and an in situ mechanism of magnetic-field amplification and structuring should operate in this case.

The very conception and early development stage of AR 12548 are investigated based on SDO/HMI observations of 20--25 May 2016. Full-vector magnetic and velocity fields are analysed in parallel. In the growing bipolar magnetic (BMR), the leading-polarity magnetic element nucleates as a compact feature against the background of a distributed trailing-polarity field, in which a germ of the trailing-polarity element is already present. Both magnetic elements give rise to a couple of pores, which then evolves into a bipolar sunspot group. The growth of the leading (negative) polarity sets in abruptly and occurs rapidly while the trailing (positive) polarity grows smoothly and more slowly. There is also similar dissymmetry between the time variations of the negative and positive magnetic fluxes through some area encompassing the BMR. No signs of strong horizontal magnetic fields are detected between the growing leading and trailing magnetic poles of the BMR. No predominant upflow between the future locations of the magnetic poles precedes the origin of the BMR; instead, upflows and downflows are mixed, with some prevalence of downflows. Any signs of a large-scale horizontal divergent flow from the area when the BMR develops are missing; in contrast, a regular supergranulation and mesogranulation pattern remains intact. The observed scenario of early BMR evolution is in strong contradiction with the expectations following from the model of rising $Omega$-shaped loop of a flux tube of strong magnetic field.

This paper describes a PlanetaMonitoring software complex, developed jointly by the Scientific Research Center “Planeta” and the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which implements the software for pre-processing and thematic processing of multispectral satellite images of optical, infrared, and microwave ranges. This work also touches upon the pre-processing of satellite data, particularly brightness and geometric transformations, geocoding, and compilation of survey installation. Thematic processing of multispectral satellite images by software for object recognition (without and with training), detection and mapping of lineaments and circular structures, as well as determination of spatial displacements of natural objects (ice fields, water masses, and cloud formations in the atmosphere) over time-different satellite images is described. This software is used to solve a number of applied problems of Earth remote sensing.

A qualitative analysis is given to the data on the full magnetic and velocity vector fields in a growing sunspot group, recorded nearly simultaneously with the Solar Optical Telescope on the Hinode satellite. Observations of a young bipolar subregion developing within AR 11313 were carried out on 9-10 October 2011. Our aim was to form am idea about the consistency of the observed pattern with the well-known rising-tube model of the formation of bipolar acrive regions and sunspot groups. We find from our magnetograms that the distributions of the vertical [B_v] and the horizontal [B_h] component of the magnetic field over the area of the magnetic subregion are spatially well correlated; in contrast, the rise of a flux-tube loop would result in a qualitatively different pattern, with the maxima of the two magnetic-field components spatially separated: the vertical field would be the strongest where either spot emerges, while the maximum horizontal-field strengths would be reached in between them. A specific feature, which we call the bordering effect, is revealed: some local extrema of B_v are bordered with areas of locally enhanced B_h. This effect suggests a fountainlike spatial structure of the magnetic field near the B_v extrema, which is also hardly compatible with the emergence of a flux-tube loop. The vertical-velocity field in the area of the developing active subregion does not exhibit any upflow on the scale of the whole subregion, which should be related to the rising-tube process. Thus, our observational data can hardly be interpreted in the framework of the rising-tube model.

Some preliminary processing results are presented for a dataset obtained with the Solar Optical Telescope on the Hinode satellite. The idea of the project is to record, nearly simultaneously, the full velocity and magnetic-field vectors in growing active regions and sunspot groups at a photospheric level. Our ultimate aim is to elaborate observational criteria to distinguish between the manifestations of two mechanisms of sunspot-group formation - the rising of an Omega-shaped flux tube of a strong magnetic field and the in situ amplification and structuring of magnetic field by convection (the convective mechanism is briefly described).Observations of a young bipolar subregion developing within AR 11313 were carried out on 9-10 October 2011. During each 2-h observational session, 5576-angstrom filtergrams and Dopplergrams were obtained at a time cadence of 2 min, and one or two 32-min-long spectropolarimetric fast-mode scans were done. Based on the series of filtergrams, the trajectories of corks are computed, using a technique similar to but more reliable than local correlation tracking (LCT), and compared with the magnetic maps. At this stage of the investigation, only the vertical magnetic field and the horizontal flows are used for a qualitative analysis.According to our preliminary findings, the velocity pattern in the growing active region has nothing to do with a spreading flow on the scale of the entire bipolar region, which could be expected if a tube of strong magnetic field emerged. No violent spreading flows on the scale of the entire growing magnetic region can be identified. Instead, normal mesogranular and supergranular flows are preserved: Signs of small-scale structuring of the magnetic field can be detected in the area where new spots develop, and signs of the presence of separatrices between the magnetic polarities can be found, such that the surface flows converge to but not diverge from these separatrix curves. The observed scenario of evolution seems to agree with Bumba's inference that the development of an active region does not entail the destruction of the existing convective-velocity field. The convective mechanism appears to be better compatible with observations than the rising-tube mechanism.In the umbras of the well-developed sunspots, flows converging to the umbra centres are revealed. Spreading streams are present around these spots. (C) 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In the domain of the geological study of the Earth from space, there is an urgent need to study the fall of celestial bodies to the Earth and to map impact locations in order to protect the Earth from space threats. This paper proposes nonparametric statistical tests for the detection of circular structures in satellite images that represent impact craters on the Earth’s surface. Issues related to the software implementation of corresponding algorithms are also considered. The results of the application of these tests to real satellite images confirm the effectiveness of the proposed statistical approach to the detection of impact craters.

This paper describes software technologies for processing of Earth remote sensing (ERS) data received from latest generation satellites (both foreign and domestic).

A system for classifying satellite data for solving problems of space monitoring of hydrological objects is described. The system involves automatic classification and classification with training algorithms.

The software technologies for processing of Earth remote sensing (ERS) data is discussed in the paper. Since the ERS data analysis and processing require mobilizing all available hardand software tools, the new software technologies are developed to solve these tasks. The preliminary results of these technologies implementation are presented.

An algorithm for measuring horizontal photospheric velocities previously employed to process aerospace images is adapted for problems in solar physics and realized in a computational code. It differs from the standard procedure of local correlation tracking in a special choice of trial areas (“targets”), whose displacements are determined bymaximizing the correlation between the original and various shifted positions of the target. Specifically, an area is chosen as a target in a certain neighborhood of each node of a predefined grid if either the contrast or the entropy of the brightness distribution reaches its maximum in this area. The horizontal velocities obtained are then interpolated to the positions of imaginary “corks” using the Delaunay triangulation and affine transformations specified by the deformation of the obtained triangles at the time step considered. The motion of the corks is represented by their trajectories. A superposition of flows on different scales, from mesogranular to supergranular, can clearly be seen. “Large mesogranules” with sizes of order 15 Mm are revealed. In many cases, these are stellate in shape. Areas of strong convergence of the horizontal flows are detected; this convergence is sometimes accompanied by swirling. Evidence is found for the possible coexistence of convection cells with different circulation directions, so-called l -type and g -type cells.

A system of cluster analysis (unsupervised classification) for Earth remote sensing data is considered. The system is represented by three methods: the K -means method, the mode analysis of multidimensional histograms, and a hybrid method which combines the mode analysis of multidimensional histograms with their subsequent hierarchical grouping.

The description of the software technologies for the satellite monitoring of the water surfaces and ice fields is presented in this article. This technologies consists of: transformation of the images into map (geocoding); forming of mosaics from transformed images; data thematic processing with using of the clustering and supervised classification; forming vector fields of the water masses and ice surfaces moving; forming of the processing results.

This paper presents a software system for satellite data processing developed at the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, together with the research center Planeta of Rosgidromet RF. It also describes how this system is used for applied tasks in remote sensing of the Earth.

The process of constructing vector fields of displacements of clouds in the atmosphere from a series of consecutive images obtained by geostationary satellites is considered. The process is based on searching for the maximum of the coefficient of mutual correlation between reference objects (targets) found in the current image of the series and their positions in the next image of the series. In addition to the transfer transformation, the target can also be subjected to transformations of rotation and scaling. Interpolation of pixels is used to increase the accuracy of computations.

Time-averaged series of granulation images are analysed using COLIBRI, a purpose-adapted version of a code originally developed to detect straight or curvilinear features in aerospace images. The image-processing algorithm utilises a nonparametric statistical criterion that identifies a straight-line segment as a linear feature (lineament) if the photospheric brightness at a certain distance from this line on both sides is stochastically lower or higher than at the line itself. Curvilinear features can be detected as chains of lineaments, using a modified criterion. Once the input parameters used by the algorithm are properly adjusted, the algorithm highlights "ridges" and "trenches" in the relief of the brightness field, drawing white and dark lanes. The most remarkable property of the trenching patterns is a nearly universally present parallelism of ridges and trenches. Since the material upflows are brighter than the downflows, the alternating, parallel light and dark lanes should reflect the presence of roll convection in the subphotospheric layers. If the numerous images processed by us are representative, the patterns revealed suggest a widespread occurrence of roll convection in the outer solar convection zone. In particular, the roll systems could form the fine structure of larger scale, supergranular and/or mesogranular convection flows. Granules appear to be overheated blobs of material that could develop into convection rolls owing to instabilities of roll motion.

A system of controlled classifying (trainable) the Earth remote sensing data is described. Computational experiments for estimating the distributed data processing efficiency are presented.