Restoration of atmospherically blurred images using weather-predicted atmospheric modulation transfer function (MTF)

Restoration for actual atmospherically-blurred images is performed using a Wiener filter which corrects simultaneously for both turbulence and aerosol blur by enhancing the image spectrum primarily at those high frequencies least effected by the jitter or randomness in turbulence MTF. Correction is based upon predicted rather than measured atmospheric MiT. Both turbulence and aerosol MTFs are predicted using meteorological parameters measured with standard weather stations at the time and location where the image was recorded. A variety of weather conditions are considered. Past results have shown good correlation between measured and predicted atmospheric MTFs. Corrections are shown here for turbulence blur alone, for aerosol blur alone, and for both together. Since recorded images suffer frequently from poor contrast because of atmospheric path radiance, a simple image contrast improvement is also considered for the clarity of the atmospheric de-blurring effect.