History of Aeolus/ADM

Erland Källén

Department of Meteorology

Stockholm University, Sweden

Initial ideas

● 1989 – ALADIN study (P. Betout, D. Burridge, C. Werner)

● 1992 – usefulness of line-of-sight winds (P. Courtier, F. Rabier, P. Flamant, A. Dabas and others) + (A. Lorenc, B. Ingleby and others)

Candidate Earth Explorer Missions – Granada October 1999

Motivation for ADM

● Climate monitoring and modelling

– Need for improved wind fields to constrainprecipitation

– Large uncertainties in re-analysed tropical winds

– Stratospheric winds

– Atmospheric composition - ozone

Climate change model response to increasedGHG concentrations (Räisänen, 1998)

Motivation for ADM (continued)

● NWP and data assimilation– Wind profile information lacking– Potential for forecast quality

improvements– Tropics and Southern

Hemisphere– Intense cyclone developments

Forecast error – impact of obs reductions(ECMWF, 1998)

ADMAG started in 2000 – fifth meeting in April 2002

Need for airborne demonstrator

First user workshop 2006

Recommendations:• Announce CAL/VAL programme (done in 2007)• Promote impact studies• Need for follow-on mission

ECMWF and EUMETSAT

● ECMWF

– One FTE working on Aeolus (David Tan and Mike Rennie)

– Support from RD management

● EUMETSAT

– Observer at MAG meetings

– Aeolus follow-on mentioned in 2016 ten year strategy

Second workshop in 2015 – ESRIN Frascati

ADM/Aeolus highlights from a user perspective

● Mission approval – Granada meeting 1999

● ADMAG formed – first meeting April 2000

● First mission timeline – expected launch date end of 2006

● Call for CALVAL proposals and first workshop – 2006/2007 (expected launch 2008)

● Second workshop and delta call for CALVAL proposals – 2015 (expected launch 2017)

● Actual launch August 2018

● Clear positive forecast quality impact at ECMWF