An FPGA-based demonstration hyperspectral image compression system

The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) has developed an FPGA-based hyperspectral demonstration compression system. The system consists of two boards: the first board performs a decorrelation process using a 5/3 wavelet; the second board performs the JPEG 2000 image compression. The hardware and firmware design of this system is described here and data is presented that shows the results of compressed hyperspectral data cubes containing various types of image content. This paper presents the importance of bit rate control among the individual spectral bands. Some of the theory for basing bit rate control on JPEG 2000 compression, bit rate control based on the 5/3 wavelet, as well as advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. Concepts for developing hyperspectral image compression technology for systems that can be used for remote sensing in real applications are also presented.