Deep-space exploration camera on-orbit white balance calibration based on correlated color temperature interpolation

There is a significant difference in correlated color temperature between deep-space environmental light sources and that on the ground. The lack of accurate calibration parameters for cameras can lead to errors in the collected scientific image data, resulting in the failure of scientific tasks. Thus it is of vital significance to accurate white balance calibration for deep-space-exploration cameras. However, traditional white-balance methods have certain limitations. The generalization ability of the white balance correction matrix is insufficient, the ground calibration methods have poor on-orbit adaptability, and deep space exploration targets are unknown and uncertain. To this end, we proposed an on-orbit white balance calibration method for deep-space-exploration cameras based on correlated correlated color temperature interpolation. Aiming to the deep space environment background, four pre-calibrated illuminations with different correlated color temperatures are selected reasonably. Before solving the white balance calibration matrix, we stretch the image grayscale in different exposure times to ensure the brightness balance and obtain the optimal white balance matrix, which improves the generalization ability of the matrix. Finally, by interpolating the pre-calibration white balance matrixes based on the on-orbit environmental correlated color temperature, the average color difference can be reduced by 28 (72.54%) DE2000 color difference units.