Abstract

In this paper a novel nonuniformity correction method that compensates for the fixed-pattern noise (FPN) in infrared focal-plane array (IRFPA) sensors is developed. The proposed NUC method compensates for the additive component of the FPN statistically processing the read-out signal using a noise-cancellation system. The main assumption of the method is that a source of noise correlated to the additive noise of the IRFPA is available to the system. Under this assumption, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter is designed to synthesize an estimate of the additive noise. Moreover, exploiting the fact that the assumed source of noise is constant in time, we derive a simple expression to calculate the estimate of the additive noise. Finally, the estimate is subtracted to the raw IR imagery to obtain the corrected version of the images. The performance of the proposed system and its ability to compensate for the FPN are tested with infrared images corrupted by both real and simulated nonuniformity.