An Algorithm to Extract the Boundary and Center of EUV Solar Image Based on Sobel Operator and FLICM

Abstract

An algorithm to extract the disk boundary and center of EUV solar image using the Sobel operator, Fuzzy Local Information C-Means Clustering algorithm (FLICM), and the least square circle fitting method is proposed in this paper. The Sobel operator can determine the solar disk boundary preliminarily, and then the image is processed further using the FLICM algorithm. After the background is removed based on the clustered image and the boundary points can be highlighted, these points are fitted using the least square circle fitting method as the final boundary circle. The solar data used in this paper was from the observation of the Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) instrument. The 2523 19.3 nm solar images covering solar minimum, moderate solar activity, and more active suns were calculated using the proposed algorithm to analyze the accuracy statistically. The statistical comparison results demonstrate that the method is accurate and effective. This method can support the processing of solar EUV images and serve the operational system of a space weather forecast.