Optimized intelligent algorithm for classifying cloud particles recorded by a Cloud Particle Imager

Abstract

AbstractCloud particles have different shapes in the atmosphere. Research on cloud particle shapes plays an important role in analyzing the growth of ice crystals and the cloud microphysics. To achieve an accurate and efficient classification algorithm on ice crystal images, this study uses image-based morphological processing and principal component analysis, to extract features of images and apply intelligent classification algorithms for the Cloud Particle Imager (CPI). Currently, there are mainly two types of ice-crystal classification methods: one is the mode parameterization scheme, and the other is the artificial intelligence model. Combined with data feature extraction, the dataset was tested on ten types of classifiers, and the highest average accuracy was 99.07%. The fastest processing speed of the real-time data processing test was 2,000 images/s. In actual application, the algorithm should consider the processing speed, because the images are in the order of millions. Therefore, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier was used in this study. The SVM-based optimization algorithm can classify ice crystals into nine classes with an average accuracy of 95%, blurred frame accuracy of 100%, with a processing speed of 2,000 images/s. This method has a relatively high accuracy and faster classification processing speed than the classic neural network model. The new method could be also applied in physical parameter analysis of cloud microphysics.