EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing

  Special Issue on

  Applications of Signal Processing in
  Astrophysics and Cosmology

Recent satellite missions such as WMAP (Wilkinson anisotropy
probe) have provided scientists with vast amounts of data
which need to be analysed to extract vital information about
the universe. In particular, scientists are interested in
separating various sources in the radiation maps such as the
cosmic microwave background radiation which provides a picture
of the early universe shortly after the big bang and
information about the future evolution of the universe. Many
astrophysics problems, as in this specific example, require
dealing with prohibitive amounts of the data which are
nonstationary, non-Gaussian, and are corrupted severely by
noise and nonlinearities in the measurement process. These
challenges, which cannot be met by classical data analysis
methods, have required the utilisation of the state-of-the-art
signal processing techniques and, in the lack of suitable
methods, have fuelled research into the development of new
ones such as in the case of nonlinear spectral estimation.
Similarly, techniques such as wavelet transforms and advanced
signal separation techniques have been translated into the
astrophysics field and have demonstrated promising results.
Data mining and classification techniques coupled with the
advances in the computational power have enabled the
processing of data of big dimensions almost in real time which
allowed the focusing of the astrophysics and the cosmology
community on previously untractable problems in anticipation
of new measurements to arrive from the Planck satellite.

This new and active research field is producing a wealth of
scientific papers and conference proceedings. On the other
hand, up to now, most literature have been published in
astrophysics and cosmology journals and therefore have not
attracted much attention in the signal processing field
delaying crucial input from signal processing experts. In this
special issue, we would like to create a forum in which the
signal processing community would be introduced to the real
problems in the astrophysics field as well as drawing the
attention of the astrophysics community to the availability
of signal processing tools for the solution of the problems,
hence aiming at a cross fertilisation of ideas.

The submission of each paper will be assigned to at least one
referee of signal processing background and to at least one
referee of astrophysics background. In the choice of the
accepted papers, the associate editors necessitate the novelty
in the astrophysics application and rigour in the signal
processing terminology and methods. Special preference will
be given to articles which present novel signal processing
techniques fuelled by astrophysical problems.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

 o Signal separation in astrophysical radiation maps
 o Parametric modelling of astrophysical data
 o Astrophysical time series analysis and spectral analysis
 o Feature extraction and pattern recognition in
   astrophysical images
 o Compression of astrophysical data
 o Noise filtering
 o Restoration of astrophysical images
 o Transform domain analysis of astrophysical data
 o Nonlinear techniques
 o Data mining in astrophysical data bases

Authors should follow the EURASIP JASP manuscript format
described at the journal site http://asp.hindawi.com/.
Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their
complete manuscript through the EURASIP JASP's manuscript
tracking system at http://www.mstracking.com/asp/, according
to the following timetable.

  Manuscript Due            June 1, 2004
  Acceptance Notification   October 1, 2004
  Final Manuscript Due      January 1, 2005
  Publication Date          2nd Quarter, 2005

GUEST EDITORS:

Ercan E. Kuruoglu, Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie
dell'Informazione ^SA. Faedo^T (ISTI), CNR Research Area,
Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy; kuruoglu@isti.cnr.it

Carlo Baccigalupi, International School for Advanced Studies
(SISSA/ISAS), Via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy;
bacci@sissa.it