Automatic hazy image enhancement via haze distribution estimation

Since the impact of haze on outdoor imaging varies sharply with the scene depth, hazy image enhancement proves to be a challenging task. In this article, we propose an adaptive image enhancement method for haze removal. In the proposed method, a quantitative measurement has been presented to evaluate the haze density, in which the characteristics of hazy images on brightness, texture, and color are taken into account. On the basis of the estimated haze density distribution, the intensity and color saturation have been enhanced. To achieve the increased visibility, the image texture component is extracted through a total variation model and sharpened depending on the haze density function. In addition, the corresponding correction on color saturation is also conducted to gain better color fidelity. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach is effective to produce the output images with compelling visual quality in terms of visibility and color fidelity.