Compensation for Read-Out Noise in HST Image Restoration

Data acquired with the charge coupled device camera on the HST are modeled as an additive Poisson-Gaussian mixture, with the Poisson component representing cumulative counts of object-dependent photoelectrons, object-independent photoelectrons, bias electrons and thermoelectrons, and the Gaussian component representing read-out noise. Two methods are examined for compensating for read-out noise. One method is based upon approximating the Gaussian read-out noise by a Poisson noise and then using the expectation-maximization (modified Richardson-Lucy) algorithm for Poisson distributed data to effect the compensation. This method has been used for restoring HST images. The second method directly uses the expectation-maximization algorithm derived for the Poisson-Gaussian mixture data. This requires the determination of the conditional-mean estimate of the Poisson component of the mixture, which is accomplished by the evaluation of a nonlinear function of the data. The second method requires more computation than the first, but modest improvements in the quality of the restorations are realized, particularly for fainter objects.