Compressive Imaging in Radio Interferometry
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering and Physical Science
Abstract
The project "Compressive Imaging in Radio Interferometry" (CIRI) aims to bring new advances for interferometric imaging with next-generation radio telescopes, together with theoretical and algorithmic evolutions in generic compressive imaging.
Radio Interferometry (RI) allows observations of the sky at otherwise inaccessible angular resolutions and sensitivities, providing unique information for astrophysics and cosmology. New telescopes are being designed, such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), whose science goals range from astrobiology and strong field gravity, to the probe of early epochs in the Universe when the first stars formed. These instruments will target orders of magnitudes of improvement in resolution and sensitivity. In this context, they will have to cope with extremely large data sets. Associated imaging techniques thus literally need to be re-invented over the next few years.
The emerging theory of compressive sampling (CS) represents a significant evolution in sampling theory. It demonstrates that signals with sparse representations may be recovered from sub-Nyquist sampling through adequate iterative algorithms. CIRI will build on the theoretical and algorithmic versatility of CS and leverage new advanced sparsity and sampling concepts to define, from acquisition to reconstruction, next-generation CS techniques for ultra-high resolution wide-band RI imaging and calibration techniques. The new techniques, and the associated fast algorithms capable of handling extremely large data sets on multi-core computing architectures, will be validated on simulated and real data.
Astronomical imaging is not only a target, but also an essential means to trigger novel generic developments in signal processing. CIRI indeed aims to provide significant advances for compressive imaging thereby reinforcing the CS revolution, which finds applications all over science and technology, in particular in biomedical imaging.
CIRI is thus expected to impact science, economy, and society by developing new imaging technologies essential to support forthcoming challenges in astronomy, and by delivering a new class of compressive imaging algorithms that can in turn be transferred to many applications, starting with biomedical imaging.
Radio Interferometry (RI) allows observations of the sky at otherwise inaccessible angular resolutions and sensitivities, providing unique information for astrophysics and cosmology. New telescopes are being designed, such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), whose science goals range from astrobiology and strong field gravity, to the probe of early epochs in the Universe when the first stars formed. These instruments will target orders of magnitudes of improvement in resolution and sensitivity. In this context, they will have to cope with extremely large data sets. Associated imaging techniques thus literally need to be re-invented over the next few years.
The emerging theory of compressive sampling (CS) represents a significant evolution in sampling theory. It demonstrates that signals with sparse representations may be recovered from sub-Nyquist sampling through adequate iterative algorithms. CIRI will build on the theoretical and algorithmic versatility of CS and leverage new advanced sparsity and sampling concepts to define, from acquisition to reconstruction, next-generation CS techniques for ultra-high resolution wide-band RI imaging and calibration techniques. The new techniques, and the associated fast algorithms capable of handling extremely large data sets on multi-core computing architectures, will be validated on simulated and real data.
Astronomical imaging is not only a target, but also an essential means to trigger novel generic developments in signal processing. CIRI indeed aims to provide significant advances for compressive imaging thereby reinforcing the CS revolution, which finds applications all over science and technology, in particular in biomedical imaging.
CIRI is thus expected to impact science, economy, and society by developing new imaging technologies essential to support forthcoming challenges in astronomy, and by delivering a new class of compressive imaging algorithms that can in turn be transferred to many applications, starting with biomedical imaging.
Planned Impact
Firstly, CIRI will bring new advances for ultra-high resolution wide-band radio-interferometric imaging and calibration, together with theoretical and algorithmic evolutions in generic compressive imaging. By bringing new knowledge from a multi-disciplinary perspective, our results will induce paradigm shifts that would be unreachable by the astronomical and signal processing communities separately.
This foreseen multi-disciplinary academic impact will subsequently enable each community to deliver its own academic, economic and societal impact. On the academic side, high resolution imaging in radio interferometry (RI) will enable the new science envisaged with future radio telescopes such as the SKA, where the PI and Co-Is have exisiting collaborations. The theoretical and algorithmic evolutions in compressive imaging will reinforce the compressive sampling (CS) revolution for information theory. The generic CS algorithms developed to handle large data sets on multi-core architectures will be transferred for adaptation to other imaging applications, in particular for MR imaging and ultrasound imaging. On the economic and societal side, CS typically targets the design of new simpler, inexpensive, energy-efficient devices for technological applications, thereby linking to industry. These applications may relate to healthcare via devices for biomedical imaging applications, to digital economy and manufacture via inexpensive devices such as cameras, and to the global issue of "energy" via energy-efficient devices such as body sensor networks. Finally, astronomy targets philosophical societal questions relative to the structure and origin of our Universe.
In summary, the direct multi-disciplinary academic impact of CIRI will constitute a critical pathway towards (indirect) economic and societal impact. While the former will scale on the duration of the project, the latter will require progressive integration and implementation of our techniques and algorithms at various levels of application, which will scale in decades. CIRI will also have a direct societal impact through dissemination of scientific culture via public events (project timescale).
Secondly, CIRI will bridge the gap between signal processing and application, and deliver first direct economic and societal impact. Upon completion of the project, new concepts will have integrated validated imaging technologies. CIRI will target direct economic impact through patenting procedures for our imaging techniques and algorithms and by establishing R&D relations with industry. Potential collaborations are with Siemens, General Electrics, and Philips in biomedical imaging, and the with the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, a major industrial actor in astronomy and numerous other applications. This will represent a first step before transfer to non-astronomical applications and commercialisation. Commercial products may appear that would represent the production of wealth within the UK.
Finally, CIRI will have a direct impact on people (project timescale). CIRI researchers will sharpen their skills for the mathematical formulation of complex problems and for analytic reasoning. Beyond these hard (i.e. technical) skills, they will also acquire essential soft (i.e. interpersonal) skills for management, leadership, team work and communication. This portfolio of skills will participate to their professional development and help them to become leaders in any employment sector.
This foreseen multi-disciplinary academic impact will subsequently enable each community to deliver its own academic, economic and societal impact. On the academic side, high resolution imaging in radio interferometry (RI) will enable the new science envisaged with future radio telescopes such as the SKA, where the PI and Co-Is have exisiting collaborations. The theoretical and algorithmic evolutions in compressive imaging will reinforce the compressive sampling (CS) revolution for information theory. The generic CS algorithms developed to handle large data sets on multi-core architectures will be transferred for adaptation to other imaging applications, in particular for MR imaging and ultrasound imaging. On the economic and societal side, CS typically targets the design of new simpler, inexpensive, energy-efficient devices for technological applications, thereby linking to industry. These applications may relate to healthcare via devices for biomedical imaging applications, to digital economy and manufacture via inexpensive devices such as cameras, and to the global issue of "energy" via energy-efficient devices such as body sensor networks. Finally, astronomy targets philosophical societal questions relative to the structure and origin of our Universe.
In summary, the direct multi-disciplinary academic impact of CIRI will constitute a critical pathway towards (indirect) economic and societal impact. While the former will scale on the duration of the project, the latter will require progressive integration and implementation of our techniques and algorithms at various levels of application, which will scale in decades. CIRI will also have a direct societal impact through dissemination of scientific culture via public events (project timescale).
Secondly, CIRI will bridge the gap between signal processing and application, and deliver first direct economic and societal impact. Upon completion of the project, new concepts will have integrated validated imaging technologies. CIRI will target direct economic impact through patenting procedures for our imaging techniques and algorithms and by establishing R&D relations with industry. Potential collaborations are with Siemens, General Electrics, and Philips in biomedical imaging, and the with the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, a major industrial actor in astronomy and numerous other applications. This will represent a first step before transfer to non-astronomical applications and commercialisation. Commercial products may appear that would represent the production of wealth within the UK.
Finally, CIRI will have a direct impact on people (project timescale). CIRI researchers will sharpen their skills for the mathematical formulation of complex problems and for analytic reasoning. Beyond these hard (i.e. technical) skills, they will also acquire essential soft (i.e. interpersonal) skills for management, leadership, team work and communication. This portfolio of skills will participate to their professional development and help them to become leaders in any employment sector.
Publications

McEwen J
(2018)
Localisation of directional scale-discretised wavelets on the sphere
in Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis

Khalid Z
(2016)
Gauss-Legendre Sampling on the Rotation Group
in IEEE Signal Processing Letters

Besson A
(2019)
Joint Sparsity With Partially Known Support and Application to Ultrasound Imaging
in IEEE Signal Processing Letters

Besson A
(2019)
A Physical Model of Nonstationary Blur in Ultrasound Imaging
in IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging

Wallis CGR
(2017)
Sparse Image Reconstruction on the Sphere: Analysis and Synthesis.
in IEEE transactions on image processing : a publication of the IEEE Signal Processing Society

Besson A
(2016)
A Sparse Reconstruction Framework for Fourier-Based Plane-Wave Imaging
in IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control

Dabbech A
(2021)
Cygnus A jointly calibrated and imaged via non-convex optimization from VLA data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Onose A
(2016)
Scalable splitting algorithms for big-data interferometric imaging in the SKA era
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Thouvenin P
(2023)
Parallel faceted imaging in radio interferometry via proximal splitting (Faceted HyperSARA): I. Algorithm and simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Abdulaziz A
(2019)
Wideband super-resolution imaging in Radio Interferometry via low rankness and joint average sparsity models (HyperSARA)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | Scalable parallelised and distributed algorithms can be developed for imaging applications involving enormous data volumes, with particular application to astronomical imaging |
Exploitation Route | They can be used for any Big Data imaging application |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics |
Title | BASPLib |
Description | BASPLib is an open-source library on GitHub, gathering Python and Matlab codes to solve challenging inverse imaging problems in astronomy and medicine. The primary imaging modality of focus is synthesis imaging by interferometry in radio astronomy, with functionality currently being developed for magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound imaging in medicine. The BASPLib software suite gathers implementations of the most advanced computational imaging algorithms at the interface of optimisation and deep learning theories. The proposed algorithms can be seen as intermediate steps in the quest for an ultimate "intelligent" imaging algorithm (yet to be devised) providing the joint precision, robustness, efficiency, and scalability required by modern applications. A key feature on this past is algorithm modularity, with regularisation modules (enforcing image and calibration models) alternating with data-fidelity modules (enforcing consistency with the observed data). BASPLib algorithms and software are developed at Edinburgh's Biomedical and Astronomical Signal Processing Laboratory (https://basp.site.hw.ac.uk/) headed by Prof. Wiaux. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2024 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Makes advance computational imaging algorithms available to the community and recently triggered new algorithmic developments in astronomical imaging. |
URL | https://basp-group.github.io/BASPLib/ |