The Aeolus atmospheric wind mission is developed in the framework of Earth Explorer missions, which address key scientific challenges identified by the science community and demonstrate breakthrough technology in observing techniques.
The Aeolus satellite carries just one large instrument – a Doppler wind lidar called Aladin which probes the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere to measure the winds sweeping around our planet.
The Aeolus+ Innovation initiative motivation is to maximize the potential of the first-ever satellite to directly observe wind profiles from space by making use of its Doppler shift information on atmospheric dynamics and particles advected by wind and its UV lidar signal.
The project aims at developing a solid scientific basis for the application of Aeolus data within the context of novel scientific and operational applications. A number of novel products and retrieval methods that exploit the potential of the Aeolus mission’s capabilities beyond its primary objectives will be developed. In addition strategic actions will be defined to foster a transition of the target methods and models developed in this project from research to operational activities.
Six themes have been selected for development:
The “Aeolus+Processes” project addresses three major objectives of the Aeolus+Innovation program of ESA: use of Aeolus data for atmospheric process studies, use of Aeolus wind observations in the next generation of atmospheric reanalysis (ERA6), and benefits of Aeolus wind observations for the modelling of the middle atmosphere. Furthermore, the project investigates multivariate effects of Aeolus …
ESA wind mission Aeolus hosts the first space-based Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) world-wide. Its scientific objectives are to improve Numerical Weather Predictions (NWP) and to advance the understanding of atmospheric dynamics and its interaction with the atmospheric energy and water cycle. The primary data product is profiles of horizontally projected line-of-sight winds from the surface …
The Aeolus Ocean Color (AOC) project aims at assessing the potential of the Aeolus mission to monitor ocean sub-surface optical and biogeochemical properties based on the measurements from the wind lidar ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument) at 355 nm. AOC is funded by ESA within the framework of the Aeolus + Innovation project. The retrieval …
In the SWAILS+ project the Aeolus lidar surface returns are used in combination with collocated wind speed observations to retrieve the aerosol optical depth. The retrieval algorithm under development, LARISSA (Lidar Aerosol Retrieval based on Information from Surface Signal of Aeolus), will complement the standard Aeolus (L2) aerosol profile products. Not only as LARISSA provides …
The objective of the COLOR (CDOM-proxy retrieval from aeOLus ObseRvations) project is to assess the feasibility of deriving an in-water AEOLUS product from the analysis of the ocean sub-surface backscattered component of the 355 nm signal acquired by the ALADIN (Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument). The project will focus on the potential retrieval of the ocean …
Welcome to the SEA-FLECT project page. The winds from Aeolus lidar SEA surface reFLECTance (SEA-FLECT) aims to demonstrate the potential of the Aeolus observations for monitoring of sea surface winds. This project is funded by ESA under the Aeolus + Innovation project. Objective The objectives of the Aeolus Ocean Surface Wind project are to Demonstrate if the Aeolus observations can be …
For a better comprehension of climate change it is fundamentally important how well we understand the general condition (dynamics and chemistry) in the atmosphere. Aeolus wind measurements enable for the first time the derivation of atmospheric wave structures on different temporal and spatial scales and wind gradients in particular above the oceans, where wind measurements …
Windblown dust plays a key role in the Earth system, affecting climate, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, anthropogenic activities as well as humans’ health. Winds, acting as the main driving force of dust emission determine also the spatiotemporal evolution of dust plumes during transport. The proposed study, entitled NEWTON, aims to demonstrate the potential improvement of …
