Performance assessment of the Aeolus Doppler wind lidar prototype

Abstract

The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus of the European Space Agency ESA will be the first mission worldwide to provide global observations of wind profiles by applying a Doppler wind lidar on a satellite. In the framework of this mission an instrumental prototype was developed to evaluate the measurement principle and to analyse signal processing algorithms. This thesis introduces a simulator representing the properties of the atmosphere and the optical receiver unit. The simulator was developed to validate the prototype and to optimize the signal processing procedure. The algorithms for wind speed determination were developed, analysed, and improved by means of sensitivity analyses with the simulator. Furthermore, comparisons to first measurements of the prototype are presented.