The algorithm based on wavelet transform and mathematical morphology is presented to resolve the infrared image detection polluted heavy yawp. First by multi2resolution and pyramid decomposition , the components with different spatial resolutions and different directions can be acquired. The component images are filtered with mathematical morphology , then be structured with wavelet athwart transform. The experimenal results show that the algorithm can eliminate the strong clutter of clouds , ocean waves , sea level and strong noise. And the algorithm is especially suited for surveillance system which can detect the infrared target with signal to clutter ratio equal to 2.