Esa Space Wind Lidar Mission: Aeolus Ready for Launch

ESA is launching a Doppler Wind lidar mission within its Earth Explorer Program. The objective of Aeolus is to provide tropospheric and lower stratospheric wind profiles globally for the improvement of weather forecasts on short and medium term. Spin-off products are profiles of atmospheric backscatter and extinctions coefficients and lidar ratio. The observations will also be used as input to air quality models and to verify climate model parameterization and predictability. In this way, Aeolus data is expected to greatly contribute to weather and air quality monitoring and to scientific advances in atmospheric dynamics. The Aeolus Mission is also a technology demonstrator, demonstrating the potential of an operational space-based Doppler Wind Lidar. After a long development and test phase the Aeolus mission is now gearing up for launch in Q3 of 2018.