A framework for the solution of inverse radiation transport problems

Radiation sensing applications for SNM detection, identification, and characterization all face the same fundamental problem: each to varying degrees must infer the presence, identity, and configuration of a radiation source given a set of radiation signatures. This is a problem of inverse radiation transport: given the outcome of a measurement, what was the source and transport medium that caused that observation? This paper presents a framework for solving inverse radiation transport problems, describes its essential components, and illustrates its features and performance.