GPU lossless hyperspectral data compression system for space applications

• Main Authors: Keymeulen, D., Aranki, N., Hopson, B., Kiely, A., Klimesh, M., Benkrid, K.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Graphics processing unit; Hyperspectral imaging; Image coding; Instruction sets; Instruments; Prediction algorithms
• ISSN: 1095-323X; 2996-2358
• DOI: 10.1109/AERO.2012.6187255

On-board lossless hyperspectral data compression reduces data volume in order to meet NASA and DoD limited downlink capabilities. At JPL, a novel, adaptive and predictive technique for lossless compression of hyperspectral data, named the Fast Lossless (FL) algorithm, was recently developed. This technique uses an adaptive filtering method and achieves state-of-the-art performance in both compression effectiveness and low complexity. Because of its outstanding performance and suitability for real-time onboard hardware implementation, the FL compressor is being formalized as the emerging CCSDS Standard for Lossless Multispectral & Hyperspectral image compression. The FL compressor is well-suited for parallel hardware implementation. A GPU hardware implementation was developed for FL targeting the current state-of-the-art GPUs from NVIDIA ® . The GPU implementation on a NVIDIA ® GeForce ® GTX 580 achieves a throughput performance of 583.08 Mbits/sec (44.85 MSamples/sec) and an acceleration of at least 6 times a software implementation running on a 3.47 GHz single core Intel ® Xeon™ processor. This paper describes the design and implementation of the FL algorithm on the GPU. The massively parallel implementation will provide in the future a fast and practical real-time solution for airborne and space applications.