Objectives of the Atmospheric

Dynamics Mission
The prim ary aim of the Earth Explorer
Atm ospheric D ynam ics M ission (A D M )
is to provide im proved analyses of the
global three-dim ensional w ind field, by
dem onstrating the ability to correct the
m ajor deficiency in w ind-profiling of
the G lobal C lim ate O bserving System
(G C O S) and the current G lobal
O bserving System (G O S). The A eolus-
A D M w ill provide the w ind-profile
m easurem ents required to advance
atm ospheric m odelling and analyses.
N ew insights into the atm osphere,
through the provision of w ind profiles,
are required, not only for clim ate
research, but also for num erical
w eather prediction (N W P). The A eolus-
A D M w ill address one of the m ain
areas discussed under Them e 2
Physical C lim ateof the ESA Living
Planet Program m e [ESA 1998; ESA
1999b]. A lthough there are several
w ays of m easuring w ind from a
satellite, the active D oppler w ind lidar
(D W L) is the only candidate, so far
identified, that can provide direct
observations of w ind profiles, and thus
has the potential to provide the
requisite data globally. In addition, the
D W L also has the potential to provide
ancillary inform ation about cloud top
heights, vertical distribution of cloud,
aerosol properties, and w ind variability.
These w ould be by-products.
The Need for Atmospheric Wind
Fields for Climate Studies and
Numerical Weather Prediction
(NWP)
C lim ate-change issues have received
substantial attention in recent years
due to the increasing aw areness that
hum an activities m ay substantially
m odify the future clim ate of the Earth.
The globally averaged tem perature
has increased by about 0.6C over the
past hundred years and 1998 w as the
w arm est year recorded in the
instrum ental tem perature data
covering the last 150 years. These
facts, and other pieces of evidence,
suggest that an increase in the
greenhouse effect, due to hum an
activities, is starting to influence the
global clim ate system . A very
im portant question is, thus, to assess
how any future increase in
greenhouse gases m ay affect this
system .
R eliable instantaneous analyses and
longer term clim atologies of w inds are
needed to im prove our understanding
of atm ospheric dynam ics and the
global atm ospheric transport and of
the cycling of energy, w ater, aerosols,
chem icals and other airborne
m aterials. H ow ever, im provem ents in
analysing global clim ate, its variability,
predictability and change, require
m easurem ents of w inds throughout
the atm osphere.
The m ost effective tools available to
answ er such questions are global and
regional clim ate m odels, w hich to a
very large extent resem ble the
Earth Explorer Missions 12
The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission
P. Ingmann and J. Fuchs (1), J. Pailleux (2) and A. Stoffelen (3)
(1) ESA/ESTEC , P.O . Box 299, 2200 AG N oordw ijk, The N etherlands
(2) M to-France, 42 avenue C oriolis, 31057 Toulouse C edex, France
(3) Royal N etherlands M eteorological Institute (KN M I), PO Box 201, 3730 AE D e Bilt, The N etherlands
The quality of m odels used in clim ate research and num erical w eather prediction (N W P) relies m uch on the availability of
observations. M odels have im proved m uch over the last decade. Better param ersiation schem es are used in clim ate
m odels; advanced data assim ilation techniques are now being used for the analysis in N W P. H ow ever, conventional w ind
profile data lack coverage and uniform distribution over the globe. Thus, there is a need for w ind profilers in order to
im prove the G lobal (C lim ate) O bserving System .
In the context of the Earth Explorer C ore M issions, ESA is preparing a m ission aim ing at the observation of the atm ospheric
w ind profile, nam ely the Atm ospheric D ynam ics M ission (AD M ). Its m ain com ponent w ill be a D oppler w ind lidar..
Fig. 1: The intim ate links betw een num erical w eather prediction (N W P) and
clim ate studies.
corresponding N W P m odels. A ll the
benefits of w ind data related to
circulation m odels used for clim ate
studies are also relevant to N W P
m odels, as both m odel types are
based on the sam e physical and
num erical principles. The intim acy of
the links betw een N W P and clim ate
studies is depicted in Fig.1: there is a
continuous transition betw een N W P
and clim ate studies on a progressive
tim e scale. A ny im provem ent in N W P
w ill result in an im provem ent in clim ate
m odels. This w as dem onstrated
recently w ith the ER A -15 data set (i.e.
the re-analysis of the w hole 15 year
period 1979 to 1994 carried out at
EC M W F and N C EP). A s an exam ple,
for the zonal w ind com ponent, a
com parison of the N C EP and EC M W F
m odels w as carried out, w hich
show ed m ajor differences in the
tropics and in the low er stratosphere
(Fig. 2).
This reflects m ajor deficiencies in
m odel param eterisations, w hich need
to be resolved.
The different types of w ind
observations currently available and
constituting the G lobal O bserving
System (G O S), are docum ented in full
detail in [ESA 1996]. They can be
classified in the follow ing w ay:
Surface data the synoptic reports
from land stations and ships, data
from m oored and drifting buoys as
w ell as scatterom eter w inds from
satellites (such as ER S). A ll these
are single level data and do not
provide any inform ation on
atm ospheric profiles.
Single-level upper-air data m ainly
aircraft reports and cloud m otion
w inds derived from geostationary
satellite im agery. M ore and m ore
aircraft observations (w ind and
tem perature) are being m ade
during ascent and descent phases,
thus tending to becom e m ulti-
level. Their m ain deficiency is the
poor geographic data coverage,
especially over the oceans and in
the Southern H em isphere.
M ulti-level upper-air data
radiosondes are the only current
observing system providing vertical
profiles of the w ind field, but they
are confined m ainly to the
continents in the N orthern
H em isphere (Fig. 3).
C om plem entary observations are
provided by the sounder instrum ents
on board low -Earth orbiting satellites.
Satellite sounders provide global
coverage w ith radiance data, but
these can only be used indirectly for
the definition of the m ass field
(tem perature and hum idity). From
these observations, synoptic scale
w ind fields at higher latitudes can be
derived. This does not w ork at sm aller
scales or at low latitudes.
The W orld M eteorological
O rganisation (W M O ) states in its
recent evaluation of user
requirem ents and satellite capabilities
that, for global m eteorological
analyses, m easurem ent of w ind
profiles rem ains m ost challenging and
m ost im portant [W M O , 1998]. The
W M O recognises the prim e need for
w ind-profile data [W M O , 1998] and
has defined a set of w ind- profile
m easurem ent requirem ents [W M O ,
1996]. The W M O (e.g. [W M O , 1996])
ADM 13
Fig. 2: C om parison of N C EP (N ational C entre for Environm ental prediction) and ERA (EC M W F Re-Analysis) derived zonal
w inds. M ajor differences are found m ainly in the tropics and in the low er stratosphere (courtesy KN M I)
attaches great im portance to w ind-
profile m easurem ents. The realisation
of these requirem ents w ould represent
a m ajor step forw ard in im proving the
quality of atm ospheric flow analyses.
There is a clear requirem ent for a
high-resolution system observing
atm ospheric w ind profiles directly.
The Observational Requirements of
the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission
Existing system s cannot m eet the
requirem ents for better w ind profiles.
In order to m eet the needs of N W P,
clim ate and atm ospheric research
objectives, an observing system has
to be set up that provides three-
dim ensional w ind data over the globe.
This m eans that it is essential to
devote significant effort to the
developm ent of space-based
system s.
For a m ission intended to dem onstrate
the feasibility of a full-scale space-
borne w ind observing system to
im prove global atm ospheric analyses,
the requirem ents on data quality and
vertical resolution are very stringent
and difficult to achieve. The horizontal
density of observations is of low er
priority. The derivation of the coverage
specification is supported by w eather-
forecast-im pact experim ents, w hich
included the inputs from the
conventional w ind-profile netw ork, that
provides poor geographic coverage
and is irregular in tim e but
nevertheless is of key im portance. The
use of variational assim ilation
techniques im plies that only line-of-
sight (LO S) w inds are required; vector
w inds are not necessary. Table 1
specifies the principal param eters for
w ind-profile observations that have
been extracted from the previously
m entioned W M O requirem ents and
capabilities docum ents.
The Technical Concept of the
Atmospheric Dynamics Mission
The m easurem ent concept is
illustrated in Fig. 4: the heart of the
m ission is a space-borne D oppler
w ind lidar w hich em its ultraviolet
pulses tow ards the Earth. These are
reflected by the atm osphere and by
Earth Explorer Missions 14
O bservational R equirem ents
PB L Troposph. Stratosph.
Vertical D om ain [km ] 0-2 2-16 16-20
Vertical R esolution [km ] 0.5 1.0 2.0
H orizontal D om ain global
N um ber of Profiles [hour
-1
] 100
Profile Separation [km ] > 200
Tem poral Sam pling [hour] 12
A ccuracy (C om ponent) [m s
-1
] 2 2-3 3
H orizontal Integration [km ] 50
Tim eliness [hour] 3
Length of O bservational
D ata Set [yr] 3
Table 1: O bservational requirem ents for the Atm ospheric D ynam ics M ission
(PBL = planetary boundary layer).
Fig. 3: The radiosonde netw ork radiosonde/pilot ascents containing w ind profile inform ation that w ere available for the 6-
hour tim e w indow centred around 12 U TC on 28 April 1999. W ind profile inform ation is generally m issing over all ocean
areas.
M ean O rbit Param eters
O rbit Type Sun-synchronous orbit
at 18:00 LTA N
M ean A ltitude 408 km
Inclination 96.99
the Earths surface. These back-
scattered signals are processed to
provide quantitative inform ation on
vertical w ind profiles. The lidar
exploits the D oppler shifts induced by
the w ind on the received signal back-
scattered from aerosols or m olecules.
In addition, inform ation can be
derived about other param eters
(e.g. cloud cover or aerosol content).
Electrom agnetic radiation in the
ultraviolet is heavily attenuated by
cloud. A com plete profile can thus
only be derived in a cloud-free or
partly cloud-free atm osphere, through
gaps betw een clouds. H ow ever, it has
been dem onstrated that in about 50 %
of the cloudy cases it is still possible
to retrieve w ind profiles w ith high
quality [ESA 1999a]. If a scene is
overcast, w ind profiles can be derived
for the layers above the clouds.
Furtherm ore, sim ulations have show n
that cloud-free observations alone
w ould still have a significant im pact.
The m ission requires the m easurem ent
of horizontal w ind velocity
com ponents from the low er part of the
troposphere to the low er part of the
stratosphere (up to 20 km altitude). A s
the observation of a single com ponent
of the horizontal w ind velocity has
been show n to be adequate to m eet
the m ission objectives of A eolus-A D M ,
this has been baselined to ease
instrum ent design.
For the satellite, a sun-synchronous
daw n-dusk orbit has been selected.
This provides quasi-global coverage
and corresponds to a low er cloud
coverage w hile, in turn, it w ill also
im prove perform ance. It also
facilitates som e aspects of the satellite
design.
The LO S of the instrum ent w ill be 35
off nadir, to ensure optim al instrum ent
perform ance. and 90 across the flight
direction to avoid a contribution from
the satellite velocity to the D oppler-
frequency shift. To dim inish
background radiation effects, the LO S
of the instrum ent w ill point in the anti-
Sun direction. The equator crossing
tim e has been chosen to provide low
cloud-cover conditions. The orbit w ill
provide a slightly better coverage over
the N orth Pole than over the South
Pole. A baseline altitude of 400 km
has been selected. The orbit
param eters are sum m arised in Table 2.
The instrum ents orientation is
depicted in Fig. 5. The sam pling
schem e foresees one m easurem ent
being m ade every 200 km and an
integration length of 50 km .
The required instrum ental accuracy
for any horizontal LO S w ind
ADM 15
Fig. 4: D oppler W ind Lidar principle: the lidar em its a laser pulse tow ards the atm osphere, then collects, sam ples, and
retrieves the frequency of the back-scattered signal. The received signal frequency is D oppler-shifted from that em itted by
the laser, due to the spacecraft, Earth, and w ind velocities. The lidar m easures the w ind projection along the laser line-of-
sight (LO S), using a slant angle relative to nadir.
Table 2. M ain param eters of selected
baseline orbit.
sea) echo w ill be detected to
calibrate distance (height).
In order to transform raw data into
w ind m easurem ents, processing has
to be perform ed for both the aerosol
and the m olecular channels. This
requires taking into account
background radiances and the
spectrom eter spectral response, as
w ell as calibration data. Finally, using
satellite sensor data, each w ind
m easurem ent for each altitude layer
m ust be located in an Earth reference
fram e.
A schem atic flow diagram for the
data processing, calibration and
validation, and inform ation
dissem ination for the space-borne
D oppler w ind lidar is show n in Fig. 6.
The processing of D W L data in a
realistic atm osphere has been
sim ulated in order to verify
perform ance in both clear and cloudy
areas. C ontrary to passive satellite
sensors, w hich have relatively large
footprints, an active D W L, firing m any
shots per second, exhibits good
potential for extracting useful
inform ation on the atm osphere in
partly cloudy cases. This w as m ade
clear in the LITE back-scatter lidar
com ponent has been translated from
the m ission accuracy requirem ent of
2-3 m s
-1
for each w ind com ponent
(see Table 1). Stringent requirem ents
on w ind accuracy and the large
vertical dom ain (up to 20 km ) lead to
the consideration of an instrum ent
concept w hich relies on m olecular
backscatter at high altitude (w here
background aerosols becom e rare)
and on aerosol backscatter at low er
altitude. Fig. 5 also show s the
baseline m easurem ent profile.
The design features of the selected
baseline concept are show n in [M gie
and Readings, this issue, Fig. 4]. The
satellite is a conventional box
structure w ith a central cone upon
w hich the instrum ent is m ounted via
the three isostatic m ounts (bipods).
Since the satellite is flow n in a daw n-
dusk orbit, the y-side alw ays faces
aw ay from the Sun, and the solar
arrays can be w ings, one forw ard and
one aft of the bus (w ith reference to
the flight direction), fixed in
orientation.
Data Processing
The instrum ent w ill transm it raw data
to the ground, w hich consists of the
accum ulated spectra from the M ie
receiver and the flux intensities from
the R ayleigh receiver. These data are
nom inally provided every 3.5 km
along-track. The instrum ent has the
potential to provide data every 1 km
horizontally for dedicated areas (w hen
required) and for each altitude bin
(-1 km (for calibration) to 16.5 km
height for the M ie channel, 0.5 km to
26.5 km for the R ayleigh channel). The
vertical resolution is configurable
betw een 500 m and 2 km .
Prior to integrating data over 50 km
along-track, som e signal processing
w ill be carried out to segregate the
sam ples from clear air from those
affected by cloud, to control the
processing in case of variable
conditions, e.g., due to cloud. A s
such, besides w ind profiles above
clouds and optically thick cloud
layers, even full w ind profiles of useful
quality m ay be obtained in m any
cases of scattered cloud. G round (or
Earth Explorer Missions 16
Fig. 5: Baseline Aeolus-AD M m easurem ent geom etry the baseline
m easurem ent profile depicting the m apping of atm ospheric heights to layers
m easured by the detector. The vertical as w ell as the horizontal values can be
program m ed, thus providing good flexibility.
European Space A gency, 1999b: The
ESA Living PlanetProgram m e, EO Q ,
N 63, pp 1-20
W orld M eteorological O rganisation,
1996: G uide to M eteorological
Instrum ents and M ethods of
O bservation, 6
th
edition, W M O -N o.8,
Secretariat of the W orld
M eteorological O rganisation, G eneva,
Sw itzerland.
W orld M eteorological O rganisation,
1998: Prelim inary Statem ent of
G uidance R egarding H ow W ell
Satellite C apabilities M eet W M O U ser
R equirem ents in Several A pplication
A reas. W M O Satellite R eports SAT-21.
W M O /TD N
o
913.
ADM 17
Fig. 6: Schem atic flow diagram for the data processing, validation and
calibration of the inform ation from a space-borne D W L (L = processing level).
m ission on the Space Shuttle. The
sim ulated D W L m easurem ents have
also been assim ilated in a state-of-
the-art atm ospheric data assim ilation
system , in a so-called O bserving
System Sim ulation Experim ent
(O SSE). Im proved analyses and
forecasts w ere dem onstrated in the
N orthern H em isphere through the
addition of A eolus-A D M D W L
m easurem ents.
Context
The A tm ospheric D ynam ics Earth
Explorer C ore M ission w ill for the first
tim e provide direct observations, on a
global scale, of atm ospheric w ind
profiles in clear or partly cloudy air
over the depth of the atm osphere, a
notable deficiency of current
observing system s. These data w ill
find w ide application in advancing the
perform ance of num erical m odels
used in clim ate research and w eather
forecasting, as these are suffering
increasingly from the lack of such
data. R eliable m easurem ents of the
tropospheric, three-dim ensional, w ind
field are of the utm ost im portance for
N W P, seasonal-to-interannual
forecasting and for studying
atm ospheric dynam ics, energetics
and the w ater, chem ical and aerosol
cycles associated w ith the state of the
global clim ate and its future evolution.
W ith these data it w ill also be possible
to increase understanding of
atm ospheric processes occurring in
tropical regions to the point w here it
w ill be possible to take proper
account of them in clim ate m odels. A t
present, in tropical regions little
inform ation about atm ospheric
dynam ics can be inferred from the
existing G O S. The proposed concept
also m eets the requirem ents of grow th
potential, w hich is relevant in view of a
future operational m ission.
M ore detailed inform ation on the
scientific context and the m ission
im plem entation can be found in
[ESA 1999a].
References
European Space A gency, 1996:
A tm ospheric D ynam ics M ission, ESA
SP-1196 (4).
European Space A gency, 1998: The
Science and R esearch Elem ents of
ESAs Living Planet Program m e, ESA
SP-1227, 105pp.
European Space A gency, 1999a:
A tm ospheric D ynam ics M ission,
R eport for M ission Selection, ESA
SP-1233(4) also on the internet at
< http://w w w.estec.esa.nl/m ag/doc/ad
m .pdf>