Dehazing method through polarimetric imaging and multi-scale analysis

An approach for haze removal utilizing polarimetric imaging and multi-scale analysis has been developed to solve one problem that haze weather weakens the interpretation of remote sensing because of the poor visibility and short detection distance of haze images. On the one hand, the polarization effects of the airlight and the object radiance in the imaging procedure has been considered. On the other hand, one fact that objects and haze possess different frequency distribution properties has been emphasized. So multi-scale analysis through wavelet transform has been employed to make it possible for low frequency components that haze presents and high frequency coefficients that image details or edges occupy are processed separately. According to the measure of the polarization feather by Stokes parameters, three linear polarized images (0°, 45°, and 90°) have been taken on haze weather, then the best polarized image min I and the worst one max I can be synthesized. Afterwards, those two polarized images contaminated by haze have been decomposed into different spatial layers with wavelet analysis, and the low frequency images have been processed via a polarization dehazing algorithm while high frequency components manipulated with a nonlinear transform. Then the ultimate haze-free image can be reconstructed by inverse wavelet reconstruction. Experimental results verify that the dehazing method proposed in this study can strongly promote image visibility and increase detection distance through haze for imaging warning and remote sensing systems.