Aeolus Introduction
ADM-Aeolus is the second of ESA’s Earth Explorer core missions. The objective is to provide profiles of high-quality wind observations from the surface to 30 km, using a Doppler wind lidar (DWL) instrument in a near-polar sun-synchronous, dawn-dusk orbit. The wind information is the horizontal line-of-sight component, perpendicular to the satellite track. The mission is intended to have a minimum lifetime of three years.
ECMWF is leading the project to develop (in close collaboration with KNMI) the Aeolus Level 2B/C processing software i.e. the wind retrieval. The L2B wind retrieval algorithms have also been developed in the past in collaboration with Météo-France, DLR and LMD/IPSL. ECMWF will also generate the L2B products in an operational fashion at ECMWF (and provide the products to ESA) and we intend to assimilate the L2B winds in our global NWP model. Aeolus will also provide information on the optical properties of cloud and aerosol (via the L2A product), with ALADIN being a High Spectral Resolution Lidar; the L2A product may be useful for atmospheric composition modelling. ECMWF has contributed to a number of ESA funded data impact studies to assess the potential impact of the Aeolus data. We expect the Aeolus mission to have a positive impact on forecast and analysis quality, in particular for winds in the tropics.
More information on Aeolus can be found at ESA's website.
The L2B processing software
ECMWF and KNMI develop the ADM-Aeolus Level-2B wind retrieval software which produces Horizontal Line of Sight (HLOS) winds suitable for use in NWP and meteorological research. The algorithms are described in Tan et al. ( Tellus, A, 2008, 60, 2, 191-205), however note that there have been many modifications to the software since the reference was written.
Downloading the L2B processing software
- The ADM-Aeolus Level-2B/C processing documentation (including the Software Release Note, the Algorithm Theoretical Baseline and the Input/Output Data Definitions Interface Control documents) and associated datasets (needed to test the success of the installation) can be freely downloaded from here
- The source code can be downloaded for free from from our website (upon acceptance of the licence terms) Download Aeolus L2B processor
- Any news on updates to the software, e.g. new deliveries, will be provided here
- Technical Notes prepared for ESA which are related to the L2B/C processing can be downloaded here (they are useful to help understand more about the L2B products)
Artist's impression of the ADM-Aeolus satellite in orbit
An example of Aeolus L2B Rayleigh-clear wind observations, generated via operating the genuine ground processing upon a realistic simulation of the raw data.
