Radiative Transfer for Earth Observation
Radiative Transfer Modelling and Syntethic Scene Generation
Essential Climate Variables retrieval from satellite data
Rayference is an innovative SME specialising in Earth Observation. Our focus lies in offering extensive technical and scientific expertise in both 1D and 3D radiative transfer modelling. Our flagship products, CISAR – an advanced inversion algorithm – and Eradiate – a cutting-edge open-source 3D Radiative Transfer Model – represent our commitment to excellence in this field. Find out more about our portfolio and our projects!
Our mission
We believe in the societal importance of understanding the Earth’s climate. This is why we work passionately to provide high quality service on radiative transfer theory applied to the field of environment and climate monitoring as well as supporting green energy, such as solar energy production.
Our team
We are a small team of young physicists and engineers passionate about scientific challenges and ethical principles, developing innovative solutions based on state-of-the-art research to support research and projects aiming at improving our understanding of climate. Do you want to join us? Check out our current job openings.
Latest News
Rayference will attend the 7th Very High-resolution Radar & Optical Data Assessment (VH-RODA) workshop, held at ESA-ESRIN in Frascati (Italy) from 16 to 20 November 2026.
VH-RODA brings together the New Space, commercial and institutional sectors to discuss Earth observation data quality, calibration and validation. It is the perfect place for us to show how forward 3D radiative transfer modelling can support the New Space industry, from instrument design to Cal/Val in orbit.
From 29 September to 2 October 2026, Rayference took part in the 45th EARSeL Symposium, hosted by Harokopio University in Athens (Greece).
Nicolas Misk (Rayference and Q-ForestLab, Ghent University) gave an oral presentation, Towards uncertainty characterization of anisotropic diffuse irradiance correction from field radiometry, in the session on recent developments in field, lab, airborne and spaceborne spectroscopy.
On June 23rd-25st, the first experimental field campaign using our THEMIS artificial target took place at the Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W ) in Gembloux, Belgium.
The campaign was carried out as part of the Fiducial Reference Measurements for Vegetation (FRM4Veg) project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and led by National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Its primary objective is to establish protocols for traceable in situ measurements of vegetation-related parameters, such as surface reflectance, in support of Earth observation satellite calibration and validation.
