The Atmospheric Radiation Analysis group is specialized in the study of the variability and evolution of the climate of the Earth from space borne observations made principally by vertical sounders, in the infrared and the microwave domains.

Its main research themes relate to the collection of a long term, global, climatology of the earth-atmosphere state: temperature and moisture; cloud characteristics, including their microphysical properties; greenhouse gases, mainly CO₂, in relation with the carbon cycle; aerosols (volcanic, dust, smoke, etc.) infrared characteristics in relation with the earth radiative budget; continental surface infrared emissivities, in relation with the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere. The group is also deeply involved in statistical analysis of large spatio-temporal data bases (inverse problems, linear and non linear inference, neural networks, classification, pattern recognition, etc.).
The group has developed numerous tools in spectroscopy of the atmospheric gases, forward and inverse radiative transfer modelling, etc. In particular, the group develops and maintains the spectroscopic data base GEISA « Gestion et Etude des Informations Spectroscopiques Atmosphйriques » (Study and management of atmospheric spectroscopic information).