We propose a simple yet effective structural patch decomposition approach for multi-exposure image fusion (MEF) that is robust to ghosting effect. We decompose an image patch into three conceptually independent components: signal strength, signal structure, and mean intensity. Upon fusing these three components separately, we reconstruct a desired patch and place it back into the fused image. This novel patch decomposition approach benefits MEF in many aspects. First, as opposed to most pixel-wise MEF methods, the proposed algorithm does not require post-processing steps to improve visual quality or to reduce spatial artifacts. Second, it handles RGB color channels jointly, and thus produces fused images with more vivid color appearance. Third and most importantly, the direction of the signal structure component in the patch vector space provides ideal information for ghost removal. It allows us to reliably and efficiently reject inconsistent object motions with respect to a chosen reference image without performing computationally expensive motion estimation. We compare the proposed algorithm with 12 MEF methods on 21 static scenes and 12 deghosting schemes on 19 dynamic scenes (with camera and object motion). Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm not only outperforms previous MEF algorithms on static scenes but also consistently produces high quality fused images with little ghosting artifacts for dynamic scenes. Moreover, it maintains a lower computational cost compared with the state-of-the-art deghosting schemes.

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Today, some tens of million years after its creation by the collision between India and Asia, the Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau on Earth. Results of geological and tectonic studies indicate that the plateau is extending. However, almost no quantitative evidence shows whether the plateau is still uplifting or thickening nowadays. Herein, we present geodetic evidence of mass loss beneath the Tibetan Plateau and increasing crust thickness. Combined absolute gravity and Global Positional System (GPS) measurements at three stations in southern and southeastern Tibet during two decades reveal uplifting of the Tibetan Plateau at a millimeter‐per‐year level, but its underlying mass is diminishing, indicating that the crustal thickness is increasing at an annual millimeter to decimeter level.

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