How the OAWL Approach Builds on the CALIPSO and Aeolus Missions to Address Next-Generation Weather Architecture Objectives

After more than four decades of international research and development in Doppler Wind Lidar, the Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument (ALADIN) on ESA's Aeolus mission launched in August 2018 is the first such lidar to demonstrate direct measurement of vertically-resolved global wind profiles. Aeolus researchers are already demonstrating positive impacts of Aeolus wind observations on weather forecasts, however the Aeolus mission life is limited to a maximum of three years. Meanwhile, the NOAA Satellite Observing System Architecture (NSOSA) study listed 3D-Winds as one of the top observational objectives for future weather architectures and the National Academies Earth Science Decadal Survey (ESDS) listed Atmospheric Winds as one of the top targeted observables. To address this observable, the Optical Autocovariance Wind Lidar (OAWL) approach developed at Ball Aerospace, with funding support from NASA, provides a validated, high-TRL, and reduced-risk U.S. option for an Aeolus follow-on mission that builds on CALIPSO technology. This talk will review some of what the lidar community has learned from CALIPSO and Aeolus missions, describe what the OAWL approach offers relative to the Aeolus system, and provide a roadmap for achieving a U.S. space-based wind lidar as part of a future operational weather architecture.