Status of Aeolus-2 mission pre-development activities

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Aeolus satellite was launched on 22 August 2018 from Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guyana. The Aeolus data has been extensively analysed by a number of meteorological centres and found to have a positive impact on NWP forecasts, particularly in the tropics and polar regions. These positive results, along with the successful in-orbit demonstration of the measurement concept and associated technologies utilised on Aeolus, resulted in a statement of interest from EUMETSAT in a future, operational DWL mission in the 2030 to mid-2040’s timeframe and a request to ESA to carry out the necessary pre-development activities for such a mission. This paper will describe the current status of instrument pre-development activities that are being performed in the frame of a potential Aeolus-2 mission. The main inputs for a future Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) instrument that have been used are: lessons learned from the Aeolus development phases and the in-orbit operations and performance; initial inputs from EUMETSAT including a total mission lifetime of higher than 10-15 years utilizing 2 spacecraft (implying a lifetime of 5.5 years for each) with a launch of the first satellite in 2030, increased robustness and operability of the instrument, and an emphasis on reduction of recurrent costs; the maximum utilization of the demonstrated design heritage; and a number of recommendations for the requirements of a future DWL mission from the Aeolus Scientific Advisory Group (ASAG). These inputs have been collated and combined into a set of preliminary requirements which have been used as the basis for a dedicated Instrument Consolidation Study. An extensive review and trade-off of the above inputs by Airbus Defence & Space, ESA, and independent experts, resulted in the decision to baseline a bi-static instrument design. In addition, three instrument subsystem pre-development activities are currently running: two laser transmitter pre-developments and the pre-development of an improved detector. These developments have the aim to demonstrate that issues identified from the above are resolved and that the technology levels are sufficiently mature for the follow-on DWL mission. The status of these pre-developments will be summarise.