The performances of the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (
IASI) which is under development at the laboratories of the French Nat
ional Space Agency and Italian National Space Agency have been evaluat
ed. An error analysis has been carried out on the basis of the expecte
d radiometric noise. To this end, a linear form of the radiative trans
fer equation has been formulated for the direct and simultaneous estim
ation of temperature, water vapour and ozone profiles.