Turbulence Strength $C_n^2$ Estimation from Video using Physics-based Deep Learning

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Saha, Ripon Kumar, Salcin, Esen, Kim, Jihoo, Smith, Joseph, Jayasuriya, Suren
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916374611230720
author Saha, Ripon Kumar
Salcin, Esen
Kim, Jihoo
Smith, Joseph
Jayasuriya, Suren
author_facet Saha, Ripon Kumar
Salcin, Esen
Kim, Jihoo
Smith, Joseph
Jayasuriya, Suren
contents Images captured from a long distance suffer from dynamic image distortion due to turbulent flow of air cells with random temperatures, and thus refractive indices. This phenomenon, known as image dancing, is commonly characterized by its refractive-index structure constant $C_n^2$ as a measure of the turbulence strength. For many applications such as atmospheric forecast model, long-range/astronomy imaging, and aviation safety, optical communication technology, $C_n^2$ estimation is critical for accurately sensing the turbulent environment. Previous methods for $C_n^2$ estimation include estimation from meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity, wind shear, etc.) for single-point measurements, two-ended pathlength measurements from optical scintillometer for path-averaged $C_n^2$, and more recently estimating $C_n^2$ from passive video cameras for low cost and hardware complexity. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of classical image gradient methods for $C_n^2$ estimation and modern deep learning-based methods leveraging convolutional neural networks. To enable this, we collect a dataset of video capture along with reference scintillometer measurements for ground truth, and we release this unique dataset to the scientific community. We observe that deep learning methods can achieve higher accuracy when trained on similar data, but suffer from generalization errors to other, unseen imagery as compared to classical methods. To overcome this trade-off, we present a novel physics-based network architecture that combines learned convolutional layers with a differentiable image gradient method that maintains high accuracy while being generalizable across image datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_16623
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Turbulence Strength $C_n^2$ Estimation from Video using Physics-based Deep Learning
Saha, Ripon Kumar
Salcin, Esen
Kim, Jihoo
Smith, Joseph
Jayasuriya, Suren
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Image and Video Processing
Images captured from a long distance suffer from dynamic image distortion due to turbulent flow of air cells with random temperatures, and thus refractive indices. This phenomenon, known as image dancing, is commonly characterized by its refractive-index structure constant $C_n^2$ as a measure of the turbulence strength. For many applications such as atmospheric forecast model, long-range/astronomy imaging, and aviation safety, optical communication technology, $C_n^2$ estimation is critical for accurately sensing the turbulent environment. Previous methods for $C_n^2$ estimation include estimation from meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity, wind shear, etc.) for single-point measurements, two-ended pathlength measurements from optical scintillometer for path-averaged $C_n^2$, and more recently estimating $C_n^2$ from passive video cameras for low cost and hardware complexity. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of classical image gradient methods for $C_n^2$ estimation and modern deep learning-based methods leveraging convolutional neural networks. To enable this, we collect a dataset of video capture along with reference scintillometer measurements for ground truth, and we release this unique dataset to the scientific community. We observe that deep learning methods can achieve higher accuracy when trained on similar data, but suffer from generalization errors to other, unseen imagery as compared to classical methods. To overcome this trade-off, we present a novel physics-based network architecture that combines learned convolutional layers with a differentiable image gradient method that maintains high accuracy while being generalizable across image datasets.
title Turbulence Strength $C_n^2$ Estimation from Video using Physics-based Deep Learning
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Image and Video Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.16623