EFFECT OF APODIZATION ON THE RETRIEVAL OF GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS FROMFOURIER-TRANSFORM SPECTROMETERS

The problem of the effect of apodization on the retrieval of geophysic al parameters from infrared radiances recorded by Fourier transform sp ectrometers has been analytically and numerically addressed. Exploitin g a matrix representation of apodization, we first derive a general an alytical expression for the apodized covariance matrix and then show t hat apodization, when properly applied, has no effect on retrievals. T he methodology has been applied to investigate the effect of Gaussian apodization on the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer curren tly under development at the laboratories of the French Space Agency. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.