Multiscale analysis of shapes applied to thermal infrared sea surface images

Describes a new technique for segmentation of infrared sea surface images applied to detection of bi-dimensional oceanic structures. The method is based on a multiscale analysis of isotherms curvature and a characterization through phase portraits technique. The main interest of the method is that the isotherm curvature can be related to ocean dynamic, particularly to detect and describe such phenomena as mesoscale eddies with spiral patterns. The other appealing side of this approach is that the algorithm only needs information on the characteristic sizes of the structures to be observed. The authors used this method for the analysis of several images of the Bay of Biscay