Measurements of winds throughout the atmosphere are crucial for both numerical weather prediction NWP and climate studies. Nevertheless observations of height profiles of the global wind field are outstanding and profile measurements of wind are priorised by WMO Expert Teams as for global NWP.

Recently the positive impact of airborne Doppler wind lidar observations from the Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign on numerical weather prediction was demonstrated. For the first time, airborne Doppler wind lidar observations were assimilated in a global model. These results give further confidence in the importance of wind profile observations and support the high expectations on ESAxs wind lidar mission ADM-Aeolus with a launch foreseen for mid 2009.

The results of the impact studies with airborne wind lidar observations will be discussed An overview of the status of the ADM-Aeolus lidar instrument as well as on-going pre-launch validation activities with an airborne instrument demonstrator will be presented.