Satellite Modulation Transfer Function Estimation From Natural Scenes

Satellite modulation transfer function
estimation from natural scenes
Zhi Xiyang
Zhang Wei
Sun Xuan
Wang Dawei
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Optical Engineering 54(11), 113108 (November 2015)
Satellite modulation transfer function estimation from

natural scenes
Zhi Xiyang,* Zhang Wei, Sun Xuan, and Wang Dawei
Harbin Institute of Technology, Research Center for Space Optical Engineering, Harbin 150001, China
Abstract. We propose an in-orbit modulation transfer function (MTF) statistical estimation algorithm based on
natural scene, called SeMTF. The algorithm can estimate the in-orbit MTF of a sensor from an image without
specialized targets. First, the power spectrum of a satellite image is analyzed, then a two-dimensional (2-D)
fractal Brownian motion model is adopted to represent the natural scene. The in-orbit MTF is modeled by a
parametric exponential function. Subsequently, the statistical model of satellite imaging is established.
Second, the model is solved by the improved profile-likelihood function method. In order to handle the nuisance
parameter in the profile-likelihood function, we divided the estimation problem into two minimization problems for
the parameters of the MTF model and nuisance parameters, respectively. By alternating the two iterative min-
imizations, the result will converge to the optimal MTF parameters. Then the SeMTF algorithm is proposed.
Finally, the algorithm is tested using real satellite images. Experimental results indicate that the estimation
of MTF is highly accurate. © 2015 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) [DOI: 10.1117/1.OE.54.11.113108]
Keywords: inorbit modulation transfer function estimation; natural scenes; parametric exponential function; profile-likelihood function.
Paper 151038 received Jul. 28, 2015; accepted for publication Oct. 20, 2015; published online Nov. 24, 2015.
1 Introduction images whose blurring kernel is more than five pixels.

The modulation transfer function (MTF) is a key parameter However, in the field of remote sensing, the blur of interest
to monitor and evaluate in-orbit satellite imaging systems. is typically expressed as an MTF in the frequency domain
Although the MTF can be measured in a laboratory before rather than a PSF in the spatial domain, because the PSF
launching, the in-orbit MTF changes due to the harsh in-orbit blurred dispersion of the imaging system is usually much
working environment. Usually, the in-orbit MTF can be smaller. Indeed, the MTF can be theoretically obtained
tested through pulse method, linear features method, and through Fourier transform of the PSF, but the estimated
edge method.1–5 These methods have been successfully blurred kernel has been a sampled PSF. Therefore, it is inevi-
used to test SPOT, OrbView-3, IKONOS, QuickBird, table that large errors will be brought out when we adopt the
CBERS-1, CBERS-2, and KOMPSAT-2 satellites.5 BID technology to estimate the MTF of the satellite images.
Although these methods are successful, they require some Thus, the existing blind deconvolution technique cannot be
specified targets, such as knife-like targets and bridges. Since used to directly estimate the in-orbit MTF. Delvit et al. have
the satellite is moving along a specific track, specified targets proposed an MTF estimation method based on an artificial
are not always present. Thus, the existing methods cannot be neural network (ANN).13,14 The method introduces a vario-
gram to represent the scene and uses a parametric MTF
used to dynamically monitor the in-orbit MTF.
model. Based on these models, the corresponding feature
The first thought is to estimate the MTF directly from the
vectors are constructed as inputs of ANN, and the simulated
captured image. This is a challenging task since the informa-
satellite images are used to train ANN. Before having the
tion of the MTF and natural scene is coupled in the images.
artificial neural network work, a large number of samples
In the related image-processing field, blind image deconvo-
are needed to train the neural network. Although there is
lution (BID) is a technique to estimate the image and the blur
a lot of satellite image data, the ones containing in-orbit
together.6 It is twice ill-posed, since both the image and the
data are not as plentiful, thus they do not supply enough
blur are unknown. To solve these problems, not only the
data for the ANN. Therefore, the method has not been
prior information of the image needs to be added, but the used to process the satellite data. Jalobeanu proposed a
blur function is considered to be restricted. A great deal Bayesian approach to estimate the MTF parameters from sat-
of effort has been made for the BID, which includes an iter- ellite images, termed as blind deconvolution (BLINDE)15
ative blind deconvolution algorithm,6,7 non-negativity and The MTF is modeled using a parametric Gaussian function
support recursive inverse filtering,8,9 total variation blind with a small number of parameters, and the unknown scene
deconvolution,10 and Bayesian framework blind deconvolu- is modeled using a scale-invariant stochastic process gov-
tion.11,12 BID methods have been used in many applications, erned by a fractal exponent and a global energy term. All
ranging from astronomy to microscopy. parameters are treated as random variables and estimated
The blur is represented using the point spread function through a Bayesian framework.
(PSF) in BID. The methods are suited for estimating the In practice, it is found that the MTF of domestic satellites
PSF of severely blurred images, such as the motion-blurred is lower than the Gaussian model in the mid frequency, and is
*Address all correspondence to: Zhi Xiyang, E-mail: zhixiyang@hit.edu.cn 0091-3286/2015/$25.00 © 2015 SPIE
Optical Engineering 113108-1 November 2015 • Vol. 54(11)

Xiyang et al.: Satellite modulation transfer function estimation from natural scenes
similar to the exponential function.16 Therefore, we adopt the where y denotes the observed image, h is the PSF of the im-
same framework as BLINDE to estimate the exponential aging system, ⊗ denotes the convolution operator, X is the
MTF. The statistical imaging model is constructed. The original image, and N is the zero-mean white Gaussian noise.
improved profile likelihood function is proposed to invert In the Fourier domain, Eq. (3) can also be written as fol-
the model to estimate the MTF’s parameters. Finally, the pro- lows:
posed MTF estimation algorithm is analyzed and verified
using real satellite images. Ỹ ¼ X̃ × MTF þ Ñ;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e004;326;697 (4)
2 In-Orbit Modulation Transfer Function Statistical where Ỹ, X̃, and Ñ are the respective Fourier transforms of Y,
Estimation Model X, and N. MTF is the modulation transfer function, which is
the Fourier transform magnitude of the PSF, MTF ¼ jF ½hj.
2.1 Modeling of Natural Scenes The phase transfer function (PTF) is often ignored due to the
Previous work has shown that the power spectrum of the fact that the PSF in the satellite imaging process is symmet-
natural scene image exhibits scale-invariance properties. rical. Thus, the PSP h is the inverse Fourier transform of
Intuitively, such properties mean that the scaled image is MTF, or h ¼ F −1 ½MTF. Therefore, Eq. (3) can be rewritten
similar to the unscaled image, thus it is also called self-sim- as
ilarity.17 From a statistical sense, scale invariance implies that
rescaling objects does not affect the measured statistics. Y ¼ X ⊗ F −1 ½MTF þ N: (5)
Let X denotes the natural scenery, then the spatial
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e005;326;577
frequencies are normalized into ½−0.5; 0.5 by the Nyquist In most cases, N ∼ N ð0; σ 2 Þ. Hence, the likelihood func-
frequency, and normalized p spatial frequencies are still
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi tion can be constructed as follows:
denoted by the ðu; vÞ. Let r ¼ u2 þ v2 denote the distances
between (u, v) and the coordinate origin. The power spectra πðY i;j jX; MTF; σ 2 Þ ¼ N Y i;j f½X ⊗ F −1 ðMTFÞipx ;jpy ; σ 2 g;
of images with scale-invariance properties satisfy the follow-
ing relationship: (6)
1 where ði; jÞ denotes image pixel coordinates.

jF ½Xu;v j2 ∝ ; (1)
r2q The observed image pixels Y i;j are independent, and the
Fourier transformation is an orthogonal transformation, so

where q denotes the fractal exponent. we transform Eq. (6) into the Fourier domain which is
The power spectrum model has been widely used to char- given by
acterize the natural scene image. From this, Jalobeanu
pointed out that satellite images could also be characterized
by the power spectrum model.18 A set of satellite images are π½ReðỸ kl ÞjX; MTF; σ 2 ¼ N ReðỸ kl Þ fRe½F ðXÞuv MTFuv ; σ 2 g;
used to verify the power spectrum model. In order to elimi- (7)

nate the effects of blur in real satellite images, the images are
downsampled by a factor of 4. Figure 1 gives several satellite
images and their power spectra. It is clearly shown that the π½ImðỸ kl ÞjX; MTF; σ 2 ¼ N ImðỸ kl Þ fIm½F ðXÞuv MTFuv ; σ 2 g;
power spectrum of the satellite images fit the model in (8)

Eq. (1). In addition, the experiments show that the value
of q is typically 0.8 to 1.6.
In this paper, X is represented by a two-dimensional (2-D) where ðk; lÞ denotes Fourier domain coordinates.
fractal Brownian motion process. In the frequency domain, it Because the random variable Re½Ỹ kl and Im½Ỹ kl are in-
can be written as19 dependent, then the probability density function (PDF) of Ỹ
takes the following form:
F ½Xu;v ¼ Gu;v w0 r−q ;
πðỸjX; MTF; σ 2 Þ
where G denotes a stationary Gaussian process whose mar- Y

ginal variance is 1, and w0 is the energy parameter. ¼ π½ReðỸ kl ÞjX; MTF; σ 2 π½ImðỸ kl ÞjX; MTF; σ 2
kl
Obviously, the variance of the above process is the average Y
power spectrum w20 r−2q of X, which has scale-invariance ¼ Ñ Ỹ kl ½F ðXÞuv MTFuv ; σ 2 ; (9)
properties. kl
where
2.2 Modeling of Modulation Transfer Function
Parametric Estimation 1
Ñ x̃ ðμ̃; σ 2 Þ ¼ expf−½Reðx̃ − μ̃Þ2 − ½Imðx̃ − μ̃Þ2 g:
2πσ 2
In the process of satellite imaging, the observed image is

blurred by the imaging system and atmospheric effects, (10)
and corrupted by additive noise. The imaging equation is
denoted by Substituting the imaging model of Eq. (2) into Eq. (9),
and integrating over the Gaussian random field Guv , the like-
Y ¼ X ⊗ h þ N;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e003;63;100 (3) lihood function of Ỹ can be rewritten as

Fig. 1 Satellite images and corresponding power spectra: (a) CBERS satellite image and its power spec-
trum, (b) ZY-3 satellite image and its power spectrum, and (c) GF-2 satellite image and its power
spectrum.
Y
πðỸjw0 ; q; MTF; σ 2 Þ ¼
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e011;326;260 Ñ Ỹ kl ð0; w20 r−2q 2 2
uv MTFuv þ σ Þ:
kl
(11)
Generally, the MTF of the optical imaging system is mod-

eled by a Gaussian function. However, the in-orbit MTF is
lower than the Gaussian model in the middle frequency,
which is similar to an exponential function. Thus, we use
the exponential function to characterize the MTF (Fig. 2
shows the distribution of the exponential MTF in the condi-
tion of αu ¼ αv ¼ 20)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
MTF ¼ exp − αu u2 þ αv v2 :
Fig. 2 Distribution of exponential-type modulation transfer function We substitute Eq. (10) into Eq. (9), then the parametric
(MTF). estimation model of MTF can be written as

Y
We should note that the differences between λ and α are
πðỸjω0 ; q; α; σ 2 Þ ¼ Ñ Ỹ kl ð0; w20 r−2q

uv Þ very large in scales. Thus the proposed alternative minimi-
kl
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi zation is more stable and faster than minimizing Eq. (14)
2 2 2 directly.
· exp −2 αu u þ αv v þ σ ; (13)
The minimization in Eq. (18) can be solved with the con-
jugate gradient algorithm based on linear minimization.
where α ¼ ðαu ; αv Þ. Algortihm 1 shows the minAlpha algorithm.
The gradient term ∇α LðỸjα; λ0 Þ used in the conjugate gra-
3 Proposed Modulation Transfer Function dient algorithm can be obtained by calculating the partial
Estimation Algorithm derivatives of LðỸjα; λ0 Þ about αu and αv , and it can be
expressed as
3.1 Modulation Transfer Function Estimation Based
on Profile-Likelihood Function " ∂LðỸjα;λ Þ #
0
∂αu
In order to estimate parameter α of MTF through the like- ∇α LðỸjα; λ0 Þ ¼
∂LðỸjα;λ0 Þ
; (20)
lihood function, we rewrite Eq. (11) as the negative loga- ∂αv
rithm-likelihood function
LðỸjα; w0 ; qÞ ¼ − log πðỸjw0 ; q; α; σ 2 Þ
Algorithm 1 minAlpha algorithm.

X jỸ kl j2

2
¼ log ð2πωkl Þ þ ; (14)
kl
2ω2kl t ¼ 0;
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where ω2kl ¼ ω20 r−2q 2 2 2 αð0Þ ¼ αint ;
uv exp ð−2 αu u þ αv v Þ þ σ .
% Give an initial value
In LðỸjα; w0 ; qÞ, we are only interested in the parameter α f 0 ¼ LðỸ jαð0Þ ; λ0 Þ; % Calculate objective function value
of MTF rather than energy exponent w0 and fractal exponent
q. We define the nuisance parameter as λ ¼ ðw0 ; qÞ. Thus, g 0 ¼ ∇α LðỸ jαð0Þ ; λ0 Þ; % Calculate gradient
the log-likelihood function is rewritten as LðỸjα; λÞ, p 0 ¼ −g 0 ; % The initial search direction
which is called the profile-likelihood function. Therefore,
the α can be estimated by maximizing the profile-likelihood Begin Iteration of conjugate gradient algorithm
function 20,21
τ ¼ arg minLðỸ jαðt Þ þ τp t ; λ0 Þ; % One-dimensional linear search
τ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e015;63;426 α^ ¼ arg max L½Ỹjα; λ^ MLE ðαÞ; (15) λðt þ1Þ ¼ λðt Þ þ τp t ; % Update approximate solution
α
g tþ1 ¼ ∇α LðỸ jα0 ; λðt þ1Þ Þ; % Calculate gradient
where λ^ MLE ðαÞ denotes the LðỸjα; λÞ maximum-likelihood
estimation about λ. βt þ1 ¼ g Tt þ1 g tþ1 ∕g Tt g t ;
Calculating the partial derivatives of LðYjα; ~ λÞ over w0
p tþ1 ¼ −g t þ1 þ βt þ1 p t ; % Calculate the conjugate gradient
and q, ∇λ LðỸjα; λÞ can be written as search direction
X w0 r−2q
∂LðỸjα; λÞ uv MTFuv
2 jỸ kl j2 t ¼ t þ 1;
¼2 1 − ; (16)
∂w0 ω2kl 2ω2kl
kl end the iterative conjugate gradient algorithm
X w2 log ðruv Þruv

−2q
∂LðỸjα; λÞ 0 MTF2uv jỸ kl j2
¼2 − 1 :
∂q ω2kl 2ω2kl
kl Algorithm 2 minLamda algorithm.

(17)
A straightforward way to obtain the λ^ MLE ðαÞ is to set λð0Þ ¼ λint ; % Give an initial value
∇λ LðỸjα; λÞ to zero. However, ∂LðỸjα; λÞ∕∂λ is nonlinear t ¼ 0;
about λ, and it is difficult to obtain λ^ MLE ðαÞ in an ana-
lytic form. Begin Iteration of Newton algorithm
It is obvious that λ^ MLE ðα0 Þ can be solved from Eq. (17)
when α is fixed with α ¼ α0 . By substituting λ^ MLE ðα0 Þ into g t ¼ ∇λ LðỸ jα0 ; λðt Þ Þ; % Calculate gradient
Eq. (17), we can obtain a new αn. Alternatively, by iterating H t ¼ ∇2λ LðỸ jα0 ; λðt Þ Þ; % Calculate Hessian matrix
the above process, the solution will converge to the optimal
parameter α. ^ The alternatively iterating processes can be p t ¼ −H −1
t gt ; % Calculate Newton search direction
written as the following minimizations:
τ ¼ arg minLðỸ jα0 ; λðt Þ þ τp t Þ; % One-dimensional linear search
τ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e018;63;130 α̃ ¼ arg min LðỸjα; λ0 Þ; (18) λðtþ1Þ ¼ λðtÞ þ τp t ; % Update approximate solution
α
t ¼ t þ 1;
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e019;63;92 λ̃ ¼ arg min LðỸjα0 ; λÞ: (19)
λ end the Newton algorithm

where of convergence to increase computing speed and reduce

the number of iterations. Algorithm 2 shows the minLamda
∂LðỸjα; λ0 Þ X −2q
ω20 ruv MTF2uv u2 jỸ kl j2
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2
− 1 ; (21) algorithm.
∂αu 2
kl ωkl αu u2 þ αv v2 2ωkl
The Newton algorithm requires the Hessian matrix

∇2λ LðỸjα0 ; λÞ, which can be easily obtained by calculating
the partial derivative of ∇λ LðỸjα; λÞ with respect to w0
∂LðỸjα; λ0 Þ X ω20 ruv−2q
MTF2uv v2 jỸ kl j2
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi 2
− 1 : (22) and q. The Hessian matrix ∇2λ LðỸjα0 ; λÞ can be written as
∂αv 2
kl ωkl αu u2 þ αv v2 2ωkl
2 3
The minimization in Eq. (19) can also be solved with the ∂2 LðỸjα;λÞ ∂2 LðỸjα;λÞ
2 ∂w0 ∂q 5
conjugate gradient algorithm, where the gradient term ∇2λ LðỸjα0 ; λÞ ¼ 4 2 ∂ω0 ; (23)
∂ LðỸjα;λÞ ∂2 LðỸjα;λÞ
∇λ LðỸjα0 ; λÞ can be calculated from Eqs. (16) and (17). ∂q∂w0 ∂q2
However, the conjugate gradient algorithm requires hun-
dreds of iterations to obtain the optimal result. Therefore,
we employ the Newton algorithm with the second order where
8
>
> 2 X ruv −2q −2q
MTF2uv ð2ω4kl − jỸ kl j2 ω2kl − 4w20 ruv MTF2uv ω2kl þ 4w20 r−2q 2 2
uv MTFuv jỸ kl j Þ
> ∂ LðỸjα; λÞ ¼
>
>
>
>
> ∂ω20 ω6kl
>
>
kl
>
> ∂2 LðỸjα; λÞ X 2w0 logðruv Þruv MTF2uv ð2ω2 σ 2 − jỸ kl j2 ω2 þ 2w2 r−2q
−2q 2 2
>
> kl kl 0 uv MTFuv jỸ kl j Þ
< ¼− 6
∂w0 ∂q ωkl
kl : (24)
>
> ∂ 2
Lð Ỹjα; λÞ ∂2
Lð Ỹjα; λÞ
>
> ¼
>
> ∂q∂w0 ∂w0 ∂q
>
>
>
> 2 LðỸjα; λÞ X 2w0 logðruv Þr−2q 2 2 2 2 2 2 −2q 2 2
>
> ∂ uv MTFuv ð2ωkl σ − jỸ kl j ωkl þ 2w0 ruv MTFuv jỸ kl j Þ
>
> ¼
: ∂q2 ω6kl
kl
It should be noted that usually calculating the inverse 3.3 Algorithm Implementation
Hessian matrix is computationally extensive; however, We propose an in-orbit MTF statistical estimation algorithm
∇2λ LðỸjα0 ; λÞ is only a 2 × 2 matrix, and its inverse can based on natural images, termed the SeMTF algorithm (stat-
be easily calculated. istical estimation of in-orbit MTF), and it consists of the fol-
lowing steps (see Fig. 3):
3.2 Noise Variance Estimation 1. Estimating the noise variance σ^ 2 from the observed
The noise is a key parameter in our estimation, and it should image Y and giving initial value αð0Þ .
be estimated from the image. According to the above analy- 2. SubstitutingY, σ^ 2 , and αðkÞ into the min-Lamda algo-
sis, satellite images satisfy the power spectrum model of rithm to get parameter λðkþ1Þ.
Eq. (1), and this means that the image energy decreases 3. Putting λðkþ1Þ into the min-Alpha algorithm to obtain
with a spatial frequency increase. Gaussian white noise αðkþ1Þ , together with Y and σ^ 2 .
is approximately constant over its power spectrum.
Therefore, the noise can be estimated at high frequencies
of the image’s power spectrum. The high-pass filter is
used to filter out the low-frequency portion of the images.
The noise variance is then computed from the filtered
image.22 In this paper, we adopt the Laplace high-pass filter,
which can be written as
2 3
1 −2 1
Lp ¼ 4 −2
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e025;63;230 4 −2 5. (25)
1 −2 1
The energy of Lp is ELp ¼ 42 þ 4 × ð−2Þ2 þ

4 × ð1Þ2 ¼ 36. Thus, we have to normalize the estimated
noise by dividing the estimated variance by ELp.
Therefore, the estimated noise variance can be written as
1 X
σ^ 2 ¼ ðY ⊗ LpÞ2 : (26)
ELp · ðN x N y Þ ij i;j
Fig. 3 Block diagram of the SeMTF.

Fig. 4 Real satellite images: (a) CBERS satellite image, (b) ZY-3 satellite image, (c) GF-2 satellite image,
and (d) CH-1 satellite image.
4. Iterate alternatively between the min-Lamda algorithm experiments are performed on each tested image. The tested
and min-Alpha algorithm until the result meets the results are shown in Table 1. In order to show the impact of
final convergence criteria, obtaining the final estima- the estimated parameters on the MTF curve, Table 1 shows
^
tion result α. the MTF values when ðu; vÞ is (0.5, 0), (0, 0.5), and (0.5,
0.5), respectively.
Table 2 lists the estimated results of MTF at the Nyquist
4 Experiments
frequency in the 95% confidence interval. As one can easily
4.1 Experimental Design observe, the confidence interval covers the real MTF. This
In this section, a series of experiments are performed to illus-
trate the performance of the SeMTF algorithm. In order to
assess the performance of the SeMTF algorithm, the test
data are from CBERS, ZY-3, GF-2, and CH-1 satellite
image data. Figure 4 shows the three test images that are
selected in this paper. To eliminate the blur presented in
these satellite images, we downsampled the original image
two times.
Generally, the MTF of an in-orbit imaging system is
around 0.1 at the Nyquist frequency. In the experiments,
we consider two cases: α ¼ 20 (MTF ¼ 0.1) and α ¼ 50
(MTF ¼ 0.03), where the distribution of MTF is shown in
Fig. 5. In addition, we consider two noise levels, where
σ 2 is 2 × 10−3 and 4 × 10−3 , respectively.
4.2 Experiment Results and Discussion

We design an orthogonal experiment over the MTF’s param-
eters αu , αv and the noise variance σ 2 . A total of eight testing Fig. 5 Distribution of MTF.

Table 1 Modulation transfer function (MTF) estimation experiments on satellite images.
MTF
Test data αu αv σ 2 ð×10−3 Þ (0, 0.5) (0.5, 0) (0.5, 0.5)

True value 20.00 20.00 2.0 0.107 0.107 0.042
CBERS 21.61 16.53 3.1 0.098 0.131 0.046
a ZY-3 18.31 18.59 3.0 0.118 0.116 0.048

GF-2 20.80 20.51 2.7 0.102 0.104 0.040
CH-1 19.71 20.21 2.8 0.109 0.107 0.042
True value 20.00 20.00 4.0 0.107 0.107 0.042

CBERS 21.44 16.13 4.7 0.099 0.134 0.047
ZY-3 19.79 21.01 5.1 0.109 0.101 0.041
b
GF-2 24.77 24.26 4.7 0.083 0.085 0.030
CH-1 23.52 22.91 4.8 0.089 0.09 0.033
True value 20.00 50.00 2.0 0.107 0.029 0.015

CBERS 21.84 44.53 2.4 0.099 0.036 0.017
ZY-3 20.53 52.74 2.8 0.104 0.027 0.014
c
GF-2 20.61 55.30 2.5 0.103 0.024 0.013
CH-1 20.77 58.11 2.7 0.102 0.022 0.012
True value 20.00 50.00 4.0 0.107 0.029 0.015

CBERS 22.29 43.44 4.2 0.094 0.037 0.017
ZY-3 23.19 57.50 4.4 0.090 0.023 0.011
d
GF-2 24.15 62.26 4.3 0.086 0.019 0.010
CH-1 24.16 54.37 4.2 0.086 0.025 0.012
True value 50.00 20.00 2.0 0.029 0.107 0.015

CBERS 53.40 16.34 2.5 0.026 0.133 0.015
ZY-3 46.45 18.40 2.7 0.033 0.117 0.018
e
GF-2 54.54 19.39 2.5 0.025 0.111 0.014
CH-1 48.84 21.16 2.4 0.030 0.100 0.015
True value 50.00 20.00 4.0 0.029 0.107 0.015

CBERS 57.37 16.79 4.2 0.023 0.129 0.014
ZY-3 49.12 21.04 4.4 0.030 0.101 0.015
f
GF-2 62.66 24.20 4.1 0.019 0.086 0.010
CH-1 59.52 23.10 4.2 0.021 0.090 0.011
True value 50.00 50.00 2.0 0.029 0.029 0.007

CBERS 53.83 44.91 2.2 0.026 0.035 0.007
ZY-3 53.08 56.36 2.3 0.026 0.023 0.005
g
GF-2 64.28 64.24 2.1 0.018 0.018 0.004
CH-1 61.83 58.84 2.2 0.020 0.022 0.004
True value 50.00 50.00 4.0 0.029 0.029 0.007

CBERS 56.56 42.45 4.1 0.023 0.039 0.007
h ZY-3 50.51 54.95 4.2 0.029 0.025 0.006
GF-2 67.65 67.70 4.1 0.016 0.016 0.003
CH-1 65.83 62.51 4.1 0.017 0.019 0.040

Table 2 95% confidence interval of estimated MTF at Nyquist 2. K. Bensebaa, G. J. Banon, and L. M. Fonseca, “On orbit spatial res-
frequency. olution estimation of CBERS-1 CCD camera,” in IEEE First Symp. on
Multi-Agent Security and Survivability, pp. 576–579, IEEE (2004).
3. H. F. Gu et al., “MTF compensation and measurement of CBERS-02
CCD camera,” Sci. China Ser. E Inf. Sci. 35, 26–40 (2005).
MTF parameters (MTF at 4. T. Choi, IKONOS Satellite on Orbit Modulation Transfer Function
Nyquist frequency) u-direction v -direction (MTF) Measurement using Edge and Pulse Method, South Dakota
State University, South Dakota (2002).
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adopted to model the natural scene, and a parametric
model of MTF is established. The exponential function is
Zhi Xiyang is an assistant professor at the Research Center for
adopted to model the MTF according to the actual form Space Optics Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).
of the in-orbit MTF. Then the statistical model of satellite He received his PhD in the Department of Optical Engineering,
imaging is constructed based on the above models, and HIT. His current research interests include optimization of imaging
the model is solved by the improved profile-likelihood func- system design, remote sensing image processing, and image quality
assessment technology.
tion method. Finally, the MTF estimation algorithm is pro-
posed. Experimental results demonstrate the high accuracy Zhang Wei is a professor at the Research Center for Space Optics
of the algorithm; it can be applied to perform a blind Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). His current
deconvolution. research interests in photoelectric image acquisition and processing.
Acknowledgments Sun Xuan is a PhD student in the Department of Optical Engineering.

He is currently doing research on remote sensing image processing
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the exper- and image deconvolution/reconstruction at Harbin Institute of
imental contributions of Hu Jianming, Li Liyuan, and Fu Technology.
Bin, and would also like to thank the reviewers for helpful
Wang Dawei is a PhD student in the Department of Optical
and valuable comments. Engineering. He is currently doing research on statistical signal
processing and electro-optical imaging system modeling at Harbin
References Institute of Technology.
1. R. A. Schowengerdt, C. Archwamety, and R. C. Wrigley, “Landsat
thematic mapper image-derived MTF,” Photogramm. Eng. Remote
Sens. 51(39), 1395–1406 (1985).


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