Adaptive Edge Detectors for Piecewise Smooth Data Based on the minmod Limiter

We are concerned with the detection of edges—the location and amplitudes of jump discontinuities of piecewise smooth data realized in terms of its discrete grid values. We discuss the interplay between two approaches. One approach, realized in the physical space, is based on local differences and is typically limited to low-order of accuracy. An alternative approach developed in our previous work [Gelb and Tadmor, Appl. Comp. Harmonic Anal., 7, 101–135 (1999)] and realized in the dual Fourier space, is based on concentration factors; with a proper choice of concentration factors one can achieve higher-orders—in fact in [Gelb and Tadmor, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 38, 1389–1408 (2001)] we constructed exponentially accurate edge detectors. Since the stencil of these highly-accurate detectors is global, an outside threshold parameter is required to avoid oscillations in the immediate neighborhood of discontinuities. In this paper we introduce an adaptive edge detection procedure based on a cross-breading between the local and global detectors. This is achieved by using the minmod limiter to suppress spurious oscillations near discontinuities while retaining high-order accuracy away from the jumps. The resulting method provides a family of robust, parameter-free edge-detectors for piecewise smooth data. We conclude with a series of one- and two-dimensional simulations.