Abstract
Several image processing techniques for turbulence mitigation have been shown to be effective under a wide range of long-range capture conditions; however, complex, dynamic scenes have often required manual interaction with the algorithm’s underlying parameters to achieve optimal results. While this level of interaction is sustainable in some workflows, in-field determination of ideal processing parameters greatly diminishes usefulness for many operators. Additionally, some use cases, such as those that rely on unmanned collection, lack human-in-the-loop usage. To address this shortcoming, we have extended a well-known turbulence mitigation algorithm based on bispectral averaging with a number of techniques to greatly reduce (and often eliminate) the need for operator interaction. Automations were made in the areas of turbulence strength estimation (Fried’s parameter), as well as the determination of optimal local averaging windows to balance turbulence mitigation and the preservation of dynamic scene content (non-turbulent motions). These modifications deliver a level of enhancement quality that approaches that of manual interaction, without the need for operator interaction. As a consequence, the range of operational scenarios where this technology is of benefit has been significantly expanded.
