TY - JOUR
T1 - What bandwidth do i need for my image?
AU - Price-Whelan, Adrian M.
AU - Hogg, David W.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010/2
Y1 - 2010/2
N2 - Computer representations of real numbers are necessarily discrete, with some finite resolution, discreteness, quantization, or minimum representable difference. We perform astrometrie and photometric measurements on stars and co-add multiple observations of faint sources to demonstrate that essentially all of the scientific information in an optical astronomical image can be preserved or transmitted when the minimum representable difference is a factor of 2 finer than the root variance of the per-pixel noise. Adopting a representation this coarse reduces bandwidth for data acquisition, transmission, or storage, or permits better use of the system dynamic range, without sacrificing any information for downstream data analysis, including information on sources fainter than the minimum representable difference itself.
AB - Computer representations of real numbers are necessarily discrete, with some finite resolution, discreteness, quantization, or minimum representable difference. We perform astrometrie and photometric measurements on stars and co-add multiple observations of faint sources to demonstrate that essentially all of the scientific information in an optical astronomical image can be preserved or transmitted when the minimum representable difference is a factor of 2 finer than the root variance of the per-pixel noise. Adopting a representation this coarse reduces bandwidth for data acquisition, transmission, or storage, or permits better use of the system dynamic range, without sacrificing any information for downstream data analysis, including information on sources fainter than the minimum representable difference itself.
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U2 - 10.1086/651009
DO - 10.1086/651009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77149177355
VL - 122
SP - 207
EP - 214
JO - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
JF - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
SN - 0004-6280
IS - 888
ER -