The image obtained through atmosphere is degraded due to its absorption, scattering, and turbulence effects of light propagation. The modulation transfer function (MTF) of both turbid and turbulence atmospheric media, which result in image degradation, are analyzed. It is primary to obtain atmospheric MTF accurately for studying image restoration based on MTF, the theories of both atmospheric turbulence MTF and aerosol MTF are systematically generalized and some possible applied ideas are provided.