Airborne Campaign over Iceland and Greenland for ADM-Aeolus

Kurzfassung

The global observation of atmospheric wind profiles remains to be the highest priority need for weather forecast. A satellite Doppler LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) is the most promising candidate to meet the requirements for global wind profile observations with high vertical resolution and accuracy. The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus from ESA´s Earth Explorer program is currently under development and satellite launch is foreseen for 2012. The objective of ADM-Aeolus is to improve the quality of the weather forecast with wind measurements from space using a Doppler lidar. An airborne prototype of the instrument on ADM-Aeolus was developed by DLR (Deutsches Zentrum f. Luft- u. Raumfahrt) to validate the instrument concept, calibration and retrieval algorithms before satellite launch. It is the first airborne direct-detection Doppler lidar for atmospheric observations worldwide. In 2009 the airborne prototype and a second reference lidar were deployed for an airborne field campaign in the North Atlantic with the Falcon aircraft based in Iceland. It is foreseen to calibrate the satellite instrument over ice and this concept was validated with the airborne prototype over the Greenland ice sheet for the first time. In addition the sea surface reflectance from the North Atlantic Ocean east of Greenland was measured under different nadir angles and high wind conditions. The objectives and the implementation of ADM-Aeolus will be presented together with the first results from the recent airborne campaign in Iceland and Greenland.