Airborne lidar observations supporting the ADM-Aeolus mission for global wind profiling

Abstract

The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus of ESA will be the first lidar mission to sense the global wind field from space. The instrument is based on a direct-detection Doppler lidar operating at 354.9 nm with two spectrometers for aerosol/cloud and molecular backscatter. In order to assess the performance of the Doppler lidar ALADIN on ADM-Aeolus and to optimize the retrieval algorithms with atmospheric signals, an airborne prototype – the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator A2D – was developed. The A2D was the first airborne direct-detection Doppler lidar with its maiden flight on the DLR Falcon aircraft in 2005. Three airborne campaigns with a coherent-detection 2-μm wind lidar and the direct-detection wind lidar A2D were performed for pre-launch validation of Aeolus from 2007-2009. Furthermore, a unique experiment for resolving the Rayleigh-Brillouin spectral line shape in the atmosphere was accomplished in 2009 with the A2D from a mountain observatory at an altitude of 2650 m. Results of this experiment and the latest airborne campaign in the vicinity of Greenland and Iceland will be discussed.