Pre-launch validation of ESA’s Aeolus mission by airborne wind lidar measurements

Abstract

ESA’s satellite mission Aeolus carrying the direct-detection Doppler wind lidar instrument ALADIN is planned for launch in 2015. DLR operates the ALADIN airborne demonstrator (A2D) from ground and aircraft. The latest results derived from A2D measurements are presented. Several newly developed and A2D specific methods regarding calibration, zero wind correction and quality control allow the retrieval of vertical profiles of line-of-sight wind speeds. An estimation of the statistical error of the A2D Rayleigh wind measurements to about 2.5 m/s is derived by comparisons to wind measurements performed in parallel by a coherent 2-μm Doppler wind lidar. Further investigations show that the main contributor to the instrumental error of the A2D with respect to the Rayleigh channel seems to be the laser beam pointing and the temperature control of the spectrometer.