Method for recognising hot targets on the Earth

A method for detecting a hot target on the Earth by means of a satellite, the satellite comprising a sensor for acquiring data in various spectral channels in the IR (infrared) spectrum, an on-board navigation system for detecting position and orientation data of the satellite, and a transmitting unit for transmitting data to a receiving unit on the Earth, the method comprising the steps of:

• acquiring, by the sensor of the satellite, data related to a surface of the Earth in the various spectral channels;
• subjecting the acquired data to a system correction using radiometric and geometric calibration files stored on the satellite;
• detecting a hot target on board the satellite from the system-corrected data using multi-channel thresholding;
• geo-referencing the detected hot target on the basis of the position and orientation data of the satellite and the geometric calibration files;
• temporarily storing the geo-referenced detected hot target on the satellite;
• transmitting the temporarily stored hot target by the transmitting unit;
• and
• receiving, demodulating, decoding and graphically displaying the transmitted hot target in the receiving unit, the receiving unit integrating geographic longitude and latitude of an instantaneous location of the receiving unit into the graphic display of the transmitted hot target.