Articles | Volume 15, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
08 Dec 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 08 Dec 2022

Validation of the Aeolus L2B wind product with airborne wind lidar measurements in the polar North Atlantic region and in the tropics

Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Alexander Geiß, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Oliver Reitebuch, Andreas Schäfler, and Fabian Weiler

Related authors

Airborne coherent wind lidar measurements of the momentum flux profile from orographically induced gravity waves
Benjamin Witschas, Sonja Gisinger, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Dörnbrack, David C. Fritts, and Markus Rapp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1087–1101, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1087-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1087-2023, 2023
Short summary
Quality control and error assessment of the Aeolus L2B wind results from the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign
Oliver Lux, Benjamin Witschas, Alexander Geiß, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6467–6488, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022, 2022
Short summary
Spectral performance analysis of the Aeolus Fabry–Pérot and Fizeau interferometers during the first years of operation
Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Oliver Reitebuch, Fabian Weiler, Frederic Fabre, Alain Dabas, Thomas Flament, Dorit Huber, and Michael Vaughan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1465–1489, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1465-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1465-2022, 2022
Short summary
Retrieval improvements for the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator in support of the Aeolus wind product validation
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Benjamin Witschas, Stephan Rahm, Alexander Geiß, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1303–1331, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022, 2022
Short summary
Airborne measurements and large-eddy simulations of small-scale gravity waves at the tropopause inversion layer over Scandinavia
Sonja Gisinger, Johannes Wagner, and Benjamin Witschas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10091–10109, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10091-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10091-2020, 2020
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Others (Wind, Precipitation, Temperature, etc.) | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Validation and Intercomparisons
An improved vertical correction method for the inter-comparison and inter-validation of integrated water vapour measurements
Olivier Bock, Pierre Bosser, and Carl Mears
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5643–5665, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5643-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5643-2022, 2022
Short summary
An assessment of reprocessed GPS/MET observations spanning 1995–1997
Anthony J. Mannucci, Chi O. Ao, Byron A. Iijima, Thomas K. Meehan, Panagiotis Vergados, E. Robert Kursinski, and William S. Schreiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4971–4987, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4971-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4971-2022, 2022
Short summary
Evaluation of tropospheric water vapour and temperature profiles retrieved from Metop-A by the Infrared and Microwave Sounding scheme
Tim Trent, Richard Siddens, Brian Kerridge, Marc Schroeder, Noëlle A. Scott, and John Remedios
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-757,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-757, 2022
Short summary
Turbulence parameters measured by the Beijing mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere radar in the troposphere and lower stratosphere with three models: comparison and analyses
Ze Chen, Yufang Tian, Yinan Wang, Yongheng Bi, Xue Wu, Juan Huo, Linjun Pan, Yong Wang, and Daren Lü
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4785–4800, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4785-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4785-2022, 2022
Short summary
Comparison of planetary boundary layer height from ceilometer with ARM radiosonde data
Damao Zhang, Jennifer Comstock, and Victor Morris
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4735–4749, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4735-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4735-2022, 2022
Short summary

Cited articles

Ansmann, A., Wandinger, U., Le Rille, O., Lajas, D., and Straume, A.: Particle backscatter and extinction profiling with the spaceborne high-spectral-resolution Doppler lidar ALADIN: methodology and simulations, Appl. Opt., 46, 6606–6622, 2007. a
Baars, H., Herzog, A., Heese, B., Ohneiser, K., Hanbuch, K., Hofer, J., Yin, Z., Engelmann, R., and Wandinger, U.: Validation of Aeolus wind products above the Atlantic Ocean, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6007–6024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6007-2020, 2020. a, b, c
Baker, W. E., Atlas, R., Cardinali, C., Clement, A., Emmitt, G. D., Gentry, B. M., Hardesty, R. M., Källén, E., Kavaya, M. J., Langland, R., Ma, Z., Masutani, M., McCarty, W., Pierce, R. B., Pu, Z., Riishojgaard, L. P., Ryan, J., Tucker, S., Weissmann, M., and Yoe, J. G.: Lidar-Measured Wind Profiles: The Missing Link in the Global Observing System, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 95, 543–564, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00164.1, 2014. a
Bedka, K. M., Nehrir, A. R., Kavaya, M., Barton-Grimley, R., Beaubien, M., Carroll, B., Collins, J., Cooney, J., Emmitt, G. D., Greco, S., Kooi, S., Lee, T., Liu, Z., Rodier, S., and Skofronick-Jackson, G.: Airborne lidar observations of wind, water vapor, and aerosol profiles during the NASA Aeolus calibration and validation (Cal/Val) test flight campaign, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4305–4334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4305-2021, 2021. a, b, c
Belova, E., Kirkwood, S., Voelger, P., Chatterjee, S., Satheesan, K., Hagelin, S., Lindskog, M., and Körnich, H.: Validation of Aeolus winds using ground-based radars in Antarctica and in northern Sweden, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5415–5428, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5415-2021, 2021. a
Download
Executive editor
This manuscript discusses the basis and uncertainties of the Aeolus mission performance and its improvement over time. Aeolus is a key ESA mission for atmospheric dynamics, greatly beneficial for numerical weather prediction and Earth system dynamics studies. The lessons learned in understanding and improving the atmospheric measurement technique described here will be of great importance for the Aeolus follow-on mission, now being planned by EUMETSAT and ESA in Europe.
Short summary
In August 2018, the first wind lidar Aeolus was launched into space and has since then been providing data of the global wind field. The primary goal of Aeolus was the improvement of numerical weather prediction. To verify the quality of Aeolus wind data, DLR performed four airborne validation campaigns with two wind lidar systems. In this paper, we report on results from the two later campaigns, performed in Iceland and the tropics.