Second Revised Version Using a Hybrid of Morphological Operation and Neuro-fuzzy Filter for Transmission Map Refinement and Halation Elimination in Weather Degraded Images

For photographs taken in outdoor environments, the air medium causes light attenuation, which reduces image quality; this effect is particularly obvious in hazy environments. To eliminate the hazy effect in images and improve the image quality, the present study proposes an efficient hybrid method. The proposed fuzzy estimator was adopted to estimate variations in light attenuation, and morphological erosion and a neuro-fuzzy filter proposed by this study were employed to refine the transmission map and eliminate the halation. Finally, an estimated mean value for atmospheric light was applied to calculate the color vector of atmospheric light to eliminate the color cast. Experimental results indicate that the proposed hybrid method is superior to other dehazing methods.