The likelihood of there being a Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) in space within two years is high, given that the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM) is expecting to launch in 2008. The ADM DWL will be a large (1.5m) non-scanning instrument and serve as a demonstration of direct detection wind lidar technology in space. The US community is in the planning stages for a DWL than will provide multiple perspectives, adaptively target data sensitive areas and use a more modestly sized combination of direct (molecular, mid and upper troposphere) and coherent (cloudy scenes and the atmospheric boundary layer) lidars.

As the planning for DWL missions proceed, there are several key areas that are being researched that will have a major impact on the instrument design and its data utility. This paper will provide an overview of the hybrid DWL concept, an adaptive targeting mission and synergisms with cloud motion vectors and scatterometers. A set of simulation experiments addressing the non-scanning vs. scanning concepts have been conducted. The results of these experiments using RAOBS will be presented.

A series of investigations into the potential impact of a space-based DWL on hurricane track and intensity prediction have been done. These efforts will be summarized, planned follow-on model experiments described and potential impacts on the first US DWL mission design simulated and discussed.