The real time calculation of cloud motion in infrared image sequences using mathematical morphology operations

The real time calculation of local cloud motion may be useful in aiding the discrimination of small targets from backgrounds by infrared search and track systems. While the apparent motion of clouds in image sequences can be considered to be optical flow, the standard methods of optical flow calculation are not suited to real time calculation of cloud motion. In this paper a method is presented for estimating the local apparent cloud motion based on mathematical morphology operations. The method is illustrated with a 1D analogue of a moving cloud mass. The extension to 2D images is straight forward.