Fast computation of absorption spectra for lidar data processing using principal component analysis.

We describe a principal component-based technique for approximating absorption and scattering spectra commonly needed for lidar signal processing. Where previously these calculations had been bottlenecks in our lidar signal processing, the described approach has increased our spectrum calculation speed by over two orders of magnitude. The described approach also allows analytically calculated temperature and pressure derivatives, which is useful for propagating uncertainty and implementation of global optimization algorithms.