Shedding Light on the Weather

Virtually all methods in image processing and computer vision, for removing weather effects from images, assume single scattering of light by particles in the atmosphere. In reality, multiple scattering effects are significant. A common manifestation of multiple scattering is the appearance of glows around light sources in bad weather. Modeling multiple scattering is critical to understanding the complex effects of weather on images, and hence essential for improving the performance of outdoor vision systems. We develop a new physics-based model for the multiple scattering of light rays as they travel from a source to an observer. This model is valid for various weather conditions including fog, haze, mist and rain. Our model enables us to recover from a single image the shapes and depths of sources in the scene. In addition, the weather condition and the visibility of the atmosphere can be estimated. These quantities can, in turn, be used to remove the glows of sources to obtain a cl...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: CVPR
• Authors: Srinivasa G. Narasimhan, Shree K. Nayar
• Keywords: Computer Vision, CVPR 2003, Light Sources, Multiple Scattering, Multiple Scattering Effects, Single Scattering, Visual Weather Meter