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Aladin: The First European Lidar in Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Didier Morançais  and
Frédéric Fabre
Didier Morançais
Affiliation:
EADS Astrium, 31 rue des cosmonautes 31402 Toulouse Cedex France, didier.morancais@astrium.eads.net
Frédéric Fabre
Affiliation:
EADS Astrium, 31 rue des cosmonautes 31402 Toulouse Cedex France, didier.morancais@astrium.eads.net
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Abstract

After several decades of observations from space, direct measurements of the global threedimensional wind field remain elusive, however crucial to weather predictions. The ALADIN instrument, payload of the AEOLUS satellite (figure 1), will provide measurements of atmospheric wind profiles with global Earth coverage for the climatology and meteorology users. The AEOLUS programme is sponsored by the European Space Agency with a launch planned in 2008.

ALADIN belongs to a new class of Earth Observation payloads and will be the first European Lidar in space. The instrument comprises a diode-pumped high energy Nd:YAG laser and a direct detection receiver operating on aerosol and molecular backscatter signals in parallel. In addition to the Flight Model (FM), two instrument models are developed: a Pre-development Model (PDM) and an Opto-Structure-Thermal Model (OSTM). The OSTM integration has been completed and the flight equipments are under manufacturing. This paper describes the instrument design as well as the development status. The ALADIN instrument is developed under prime contractor EADS Astrium SAS with a consortium of thirty companies.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 883: Symposium FF – Advanced Devices and Materials for Laser Remote Sensing , 2005 , FF7.2
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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References

1 Schillinger, M. et. al in. Proceedings of the SPIE Vol 4881: Sensors, Systems and Next Generation Satellites VI, edited by Fujisada, H., Lurie, J. B., Aten, M. L. and Weber, K. (SPIE Volume 4881, 2003), pp 40–51 Google Scholar
2 Morançais, D. et. al. in International Laser Radar Conference (2004) Google Scholar
3 Cosentino, A. et al. in International Laser Radar Conference (2004) Google Scholar