Five Decades of Doppler Wind Lidar Measurements from Turbulence to Global Scales (Invited Presentation)

Doppler lidar techniques enable remote measurement of wind properties in optically clear atmospheric regions, providing observations where other remote sensing techniques such as radar or passive radiometry are not effective . Progress in Doppler lidar has largely followed advances in laser and optical receiver technology. The first wind measuring lidar systems in the early 1970s utilized continuous-wave laser transmitters; however, pulsed systems capable of making range-resolved Doppler measurements quickly followed by the end of the decade. Since then, instrument technology and capabilities have continuously improved, opening up new applications supporting a wide diversity of topics in atmospheric research, including boundary layer evolution and structure, flows in complex terrain, land/sea breeze characteristics, clear-air turbulence, and urban meteorology. Over the last decade or so, utilization of solid-state technology developed for the telecommunications industry has led to development of stand-alone, unattended lidar instruments which have been broadly applied to support the wind energy industry as well as for air quality and local monitoring applications. Technology improvements have also fostered deployment of Doppler lidar systems on mobile platforms such as moving vehicles, ships and aircraft, significantly enlarging the applicability of wind lidar instruments.

Technology advancements have also stimulated renewed interest in measurements of winds on a global scale through deployment of a Doppler lidar on a space-based platform. The European Space Agency’s three-year Aeolus mission, scheduled for launch in August 2018, will produce global line-of-sight wind profiles, providing wind information from regions such as the tropics and southern hemisphere where winds are both important and not well-observed. Aeolus observations will be assimilated into numerical forecast models and are anticipated to produce improvements in medium range prediction of many important phenomena. Currently, several agencies worldwide are investigating the next generation of space-based wind lidar systems to follow Aeolus.