Results from recent airborne campaigns aiming at the preparation of ESA's aeolus wind lidar mission

Abstract

Almost 20 years after its selection as an Earth Explorer Core Mission of ESA’s Living Planet Program, Aeolus is ready to be launched in August 2018. Aeolus will carry the first wind lidar instrument in space, ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument), aiming at the measurement of wind profiles globally from ground up to 25 km. To validate ALADIN’s measurement principle and calibration routines, DLR has developed an airborne Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) payload based on a direct detection wind lidar (355 nm), and a coherent detection wind lidar (2 µm) which was deployed in several field campaigns over the last years. From September to October 2016, as part of the international campaign NAWDEX (North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment), 14 flights were performed from the airport of Keflavik, Iceland. In this paper, an overview of results obtained during NAWDEX and their conclusion on the Aeolus mission will be discussed.