The Aeolus Data Innovation and Science Cluster

Abstract

The Data Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) is a core element of ESA's data quality strategy for the Aeolus mission, which was launched in August 2018. Aeolus provides for the first-time global observations of vertical profiles of horizontal wind information by using the first Doppler wind lidar in space. The Aeolus DISC is responsible for monitoring and improving the quality of the Aeolus aerosol and wind products, for the upgrade of the operational processors as well as for impact studies and support of data usage. It has been responsible for multiple significant processor upgrades which reduced the systematic error of the Aeolus observations drastically. Only due to the efforts of the Aeolus DISC team members prior to and after launch, the systematic error of the Aeolus wind products could be reduced to a global average below 1 m/s which was an important pre-requisite for making the data available to the public in May 2020 and for its use in operational weather prediction. In 2020, the reprocessing of earlier acquired Aeolus data, another important task of the Aeolus DISC, also started. In this way, also observations from June to December 2019 with significantly better quality could be made available to the public, and more data will follow this and next year. Without the thorough preparations and close collaboration between ESA and the Aeolus DISC over the past decade, many of these achievements would not have been possible.