Hi,
I am not exactly sure what you intent to do, but, Yes you can read .bmp file using imread function, it does compress the data and make it uint8 format. Check out this link, it talks about how .bmp files are getting read using imread function. Also when I use imfinfo function to get the information about the image, I found there is no colormap or alpha channels associcated with this image, which make me curious to understand how this image is formed with 32 bit depth.Neverthless, .bmp is standard format and imread can help you read the image.
I hope this helps you or give you a headstart and also update me if you find something interesting about this image and data format.
Cheers.
