Airborne direct-detection and coherent wind lidar measurements over the North Atlantic in 2015 supporting ESA’s aeolus mission

Uwe Marksteiner,Emma Kendall,Oliver Reitebuch,Michael J Kavaya,Andreas Schäfler,Oliver Lux,Benjamin Witschas,Ryan R Neely,Dirk Schüttemeyer,Stephan Rahm,Dave Emmitt,Christian Lemmerz,Bruce M Gentry ,Steven Greco

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201817602011

Abstract

The launch of the Aeolus mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) is planned for 2018. The satellite will carry the first wind lidar in space, ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler INstrument). Its prototype instrument, the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator (A2D), was deployed during several airborne campaigns aiming at the validation of the measurement principle and optimization of algorithms. In 2015, flights of two aircraft from DLR & NASA provided the chance to compare parallel wind measurements from four airborne wind lidars for the first time.

Highlights

In regular intervals expert teams on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) prioritize the need for vertical wind profiles [1]
Wind information available on a global scale would largely contribute to improvements in NWP and forecasts of climate studies
Along its sun-synchronous orbit the mission will provide wind speeds at heights between ground and the lower stratosphere, i.e. up to about 25 km, with vertical resolutions of 250 m – 2 km depending on altitude and scientific objectives

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In regular intervals expert teams on Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) prioritize the need for vertical wind profiles [1]. Being the single payload on board the satellite, the direct-detection Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) instrument ALADIN will measure the wind speed along the laser line-of sight (LOS). As the first airborne direct-detection DWL it has been providing airborne wind measurements since 2005 within the framework of several airborne campaigns. In 2015, joint scientific flights were performed with the NASA DC-8 aircraft (Figure 1) which carried the coherent DAWN (Doppler Aerosol Wind) and the direct-detection based TWiLiTE (Tropospheric Wind Lidar Technology Experiment) instrument [9,10]. For the first time four wind lidars were operated simultaneously during an airborne campaign. This campaign comprised a total number of 13 flights with the A2D out of which 7 were coordinated between Falcon and DC-8.

OBJECTIVES

AIRBORNE AND GROUND-BASED WIND LIDAR MEASUREMENTS

CONCLUSIONS