Algorithm for image fusion based on curvelet transform

We present an algorithm based on curvelet transform for fusing SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) image and TM (Thematic Mapper) image. We first employ IHS (Intensity, Hue, Saturation) transform to obtain the intensity component of TM image. Then the SAR image and intensity component are decomposed using curvelet transform, and the curvelet coefficients are fused with different fusion rule in the different scales. Finally the fused image is obtained with inverse curvelet transform and inverse IHS transform. Some statistical parameters such as standard deviation, information entropy, correlation coefficient are used to evaluate the result. The visual result and statistical parameters show that this algorithm can not only preserve the spectral information well, but also increase the spatial detail information of the image, and its performance is better than that of the conventional algorithms, such as wavelet transform and IHS transform.