Astronomical Image Manipulation in the Discrete Wavelet Transform Domain

Traditionally, processing an image stored in the compressed form requires decompression first. Following manipulations, the processed image is recompressed for storage. Manipulating images in the semicompressed or transform domain appears to be an effective way to reduce processing time. In this paper, new algorithms for image interpolation in the Haar transform domain are proposed. These algorithms perform interpolation by computing a new subband using two different approaches. Experimental results indicate that in addition to running faster in the transform domain, the new algorithms produce images with qualities comparable to those in the spatial domain. Applications are seen in conjunction with Haar-based transforms such as the HCOMPRESS which is commonly used for compression in space science imagery