Space Industry and Business News  
EARTH OBSERVATION
Aeolus goes public with global wind data
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) May 13, 2020

Carrying breakthrough laser technology, the Aeolus satellite - an ESA Earth Explorer mission - was launched in August 2018. It is the first satellite mission to profile Earth's winds directly from space. Its data are not only being used to understand how wind, pressure, temperature and humidity are interlinked to contribute to climate research, but are also now being used in near-realtime for weather forecasting. This image is an example of Level-2B Rayleigh wind velocity in metres per second over Europe on 6 May 2020 at 06:00 UTC. The image was produced with the Aeolus virtual research platform VirES.

Delivering new information about Earth's winds, ESA's Aeolus mission has already been hailed a success. Today, this remarkable satellite mission has yet again achieved new heights: its data are now being distributed publicly to forecasting services and scientific users in less than three hours of measurements being made from space.

Aeolus is one of ESA's Earth Explorer missions, which all set out to demonstrate how new ways of observing Earth can advance our understanding of how the planet works as a system.

Carrying one of the most sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit, Aeolus is the first satellite mission to directly profile Earth's winds from space.

It works by emitting short, powerful pulses of ultraviolet light from a laser and measures the Doppler shift from the very small amount of light that is scattered back to the instrument from molecules and particles to deliver vertical profiles that show the horizontal speed of the world's winds in the lowermost 26 km of the atmosphere.

ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, said, "Aeolus was never going to be an easy satellite mission to develop, and, indeed, it took some years to get it right before it could be launched. The wait was certainly worth it though, and in the 20 months that it has been in orbit, it has gone from strength to strength that will lead to benefits for science and society alike.

"And, thanks to all the teams involved and in agreement with EUMETSAT, we are very proud to announce that as of today, Aeolus' data are being distributed in near-real time for numerical weather prediction beyond the Aeolus core user community."

ESA's Peggy Fischer said, "A huge amount of work has gone into perfecting Aeolus' data before today's public release. This satellite technology is completely new so we have had to understand and correct certain biases in the data that were not known before launch.

"To do this, key Aeolus experts from different organisations worked together in the Data Innovation and Science Cluster team - the Aeolus DISC, to validate and optimise the data processing and bias correction methods."

ESA's Jonas von Bismarck, added "As the last and particularly tricky bit of the puzzle, a bias related to temperature variations across the instrument's telescope was corrected, making the data ready to be used in numerical weather prediction without the forecast centres having to carry out further complex corrections."

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in the UK has already been including Aeolus data in their forecasts since January, relying on their own bias correction scheme.

Florence Rabier, Director-General at ECMWF, said, "After several months of testing last year we were confident of assimilating Aeolus wind data into our forecasts, which we've been doing since this January. We are now thrilled to see that the last biases have been corrected, benefiting us and additional weather centres that are getting ready to use the data."

These new data are being distributed in near real-time through ESA's Aeolus Online Dissemination Centre as well as other channels, namely EUMETCast, which is the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites' (EUMETSAT's) dissemination system, and the World Meteorological Organization's Global Telecommunication System (GTS).

With Aeolus built as a research and demonstrator mission, it has shown its worth as an operational mission with the data being used for everyday weather forecasting, paving the way for a possible future fleet of operational Doppler wind lidar satellites in space.

Alain Ratier, Director-General of EUMETSAT, concluded, "EUMETSAT will now push Aeolus data in near-real time to the 4000 users of EUMETCast and to the full WMO community, to give the opportunity to every forecast centre to familiarise with the novel data and measure their value. This user feedback, together with the results of on-going ESA instrument and satellite studies, will support our planning of a possible operational Doppler Lidar mission adding a missing wind profiling capability to our next generation EPS-SG polar system."


Related Links
Aeolus at ESA
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


EARTH OBSERVATION
Cold air rises - what that means for Earth's climate
Davis CA (SPX) May 07, 2020
Conventional knowledge has it that warm air rises while cold air sinks. But a study from the University of California, Davis, found that in the tropical atmosphere, cold air rises due to an overlooked effect - the lightness of water vapor. This effect helps to stabilize tropical climates and buffer some of the impacts of a warming climate. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, is among the first to show the profound implications water vapor buoyancy has on Earth's climate and energ ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

EARTH OBSERVATION
Space age for metals, foams and the living

Russian rocket breaks up in Earth orbit: space agency

The cost of space debris

Sustainable structural material for plastic substitute

EARTH OBSERVATION
Northrop Grumman to rapidly develop net-centric gateway

Dominate the electromagnetic spectrum

L3Harris Technologies awarded third LRIP order on US Army's HMS Manpack IDIQ contract

Lockheed Martin's new contract with DARPA can disrupt the future of space

EARTH OBSERVATION
EARTH OBSERVATION
Velodyne Lidar announces multi-year sales agreement with GeoSLAM

Galileo positioning aiding Covid-19 reaction

GPS celebrates 25th year of operation

Galileo Green Lane, easing pressure at the EU's internal borders

EARTH OBSERVATION
Virgin Group to sell shares of space venture to aid travel business

Croatia defence minister quits after deadly plane crash

US approves helicopters to Egypt but says rights concerns remain

Japan receives its first V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft

EARTH OBSERVATION
NIST scientists create new recipe for single-atom transistors

Army researchers see path to quantum computing at room temperature

Smart chips for space

Reducing the carbon footprint of artificial intelligence

EARTH OBSERVATION
NASA CubeSat Mission to Gather Vital Space Weather Data

A Radar for Plastic: High-Resolution Map of 1 km Grids to Track Plastic Emissions in Seas

Cold air rises - what that means for Earth's climate

Wetter climate to trigger global warming feedback loop in the tropics

EARTH OBSERVATION
Italy expected to delay tax on plastic until 2021: report

China smog returns after pandemic cleared the air

Stars and scientists call for world not to 'go back to normal'

Scientists find highest ever level of microplastics on seafloor









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.