Real-time, multiframe, blind deconvolution of solar images

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
e-mail: aasensio@iac.es
² Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Institute for Solar Physics, Dept. of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Albanova University Center, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁴ Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Received: 15 June 2018
Accepted: 24 September 2018

Abstract

The quality of images of the Sun obtained from the ground are severely limited by the perturbing effect of the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. The post-facto correction of the images to compensate for the presence of the atmosphere require the combination of high-order adaptive optics techniques, fast measurements to freeze the turbulent atmosphere, and very time-consuming blind deconvolution algorithms. Under mild seeing conditions, blind deconvolution algorithms can produce images of astonishing quality. They can be very competitive with those obtained from space, with the huge advantage of the flexibility of the instrumentation thanks to the direct access to the telescope. In this contribution we make use of deep learning techniques to significantly accelerate the blind deconvolution process and produce corrected images at a peak rate of ∼100 images per second. We present two different architectures that produce excellent image corrections with noise suppression while maintaining the photometric properties of the images. As a consequence, polarimetric signals can be obtained with standard polarimetric modulation without any significant artifact. With the expected improvements in computer hardware and algorithms, we anticipate that on-site real-time correction of solar images will be possible in the near future.