Dimensionality-reduction approach to the thermal radiative transfer equation inverse problem

An original algorithm is illustrated for the inversion of geophysical parameters from spectral observations in the thermal band. The algorithm exploits the Hotelling transform and projects the linearized version of the radiative transfer equation in a space of reduced dimensionality. The inversion is performed in this latter space, which speeds up the computations and makes the method attractive for real-time retrieval from high spectral resolution infrared observations.