  A method for automated coronal hole detection using He I 1083 nm
spectroheliograms and photospheric magnetograms is presented here. The unique
line formation of the helium line allows for the detection of regions
associated with solar coronal holes with minimal line-of-sight obscuration
across the observed solar disk. The automated detection algorithm utilizes
morphological image analysis, thresholding and smoothing to estimate the
location, boundaries, polarity and flux of candidate coronal hole regions. The
algorithm utilizes thresholds based on mean values determined from over 10
years of the Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope daily hand-drawn coronal hole images. A
comparison between the automatically created and hand-drawn images for a
11-year period beginning in 1992 is outlined. In addition, the creation of
synoptic maps using the daily automated coronal hole images is also discussed.
