Multiframe blind deconvolution of heavily blurred astronomical images

A multichannel blind deconvolution algorithm that incorporates the maximum-likelihood image restoration by several estimates of the differently blurred point-spread function (PSF) into the Ayers-Dainty iterative algorithm is proposed. The algorithm uses no restrictions on the image and the PSFs except for the assumption that they are positive. The algorithm employs no cost functions, input parameters, a priori probability distributions, or the analytically specified transfer functions. The iterative algorithm permits its application in the presence of different kinds of distortion. The work presents results of digital modeling and the results of processing real telescope data from several satellites. The proof of convergence of the algorithm to the positive estimates of object and the PSFs is given. The convergence of the Ayers-Dainty algorithm with a single processed frame is not obvious in the general case; therefore it is useful to have confidence in its convergence in a multiframe case. The dependence of convergence on the number of processed frames is discussed. Formulas for evaluating the quality of the algorithm performance on each iteration and the rule of stopping its work in accordance with this quality are proposed. A method of building the monotonically converging subsequence of the image estimates of all the images obtained in the iterative process is also proposed. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.