A model of the ESA’s Aeolus satellite. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch the first ever space mission to monitor global wind patterns from orbit.

The increased availability of timely wind data is anticipated to greatly improve the accuracy of weather forecasting around the globe.

The European Space Agency’s Aeolus satellite undergoes performance and thermal testing. Image supplied by Airbus.

Named after the keeper of the winds in Homer’s Odyssey, Aeolus  is the ESA’s wind-sensing satellite that will carry out the mission to carry out near-realtime observations of global wind profiles, which will be used to improve models of climate variability and understanding of tropical climate dynamics.

The satellite has completed its regime of thermal and performance tests designed to simulate in-orbit conditions, and is now in transit from Liège in Belgium to Toulouse, France, where it will undergo final checks at the InteSpace test centre ahead of launch in Europe’s Summer.

Aeolus, a 1.4 tonne spacecraft built by Airbus, will carry a LiDAR instrument known as Aladin, which uses the Doppler effect to determine the wind speed at varying altitudes. Aladin fires a powerful ultraviolet laser pulse through the atmosphere and collects backscattered light, using a large 1.5 metre diameter telescope, which is then analysed on-board by highly sensitive receivers to determine the Doppler shift of the signal from layers at different heights in the atmosphere.

Once launched, Aeolus will orbit the Earth 15 times a day with data delivery to users within 120 minutes of the oldest measurement in each orbit. The orbit repeat cycle is 7 days (every 111 orbits) and the spacecraft will fly in a 320 kilometre orbit and have a lifetime of three years.

Aeolus is the fifth in the family of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions, which address key scientific challenges identified by the science community and demonstrate breakthrough technology in observing techniques.