An iterative regularization method with B-spline approximation for atmospheric temperature and concentration retrievals

A retrieval algorithm using B-spline approximation for solving ill-posed inverse problems arising in atmospheric remote sensing is presented. The nonlinear ill-posed inversion is achieved by means of a hybrid approach combining higher-order B-spline functions and the iteratively regularized Gauss–Newton method. The performance of the inversion algorithm is studied by means of simulations for atmospheric temperature retrieval from far infrared airborne observations and molecular concentration retrievals from infrared limb emission spectra.