Doppler Wind LIDAR

The main aim of the NWP SAF Doppler Wind Lidar monitoring site is to improve the understanding of Doppler Wind Lidar characteristics, in order to enable improvements in upstream processing and their treatment in NWP models. The ESA’s Aeolus satellite was launched in 2018, as the first Doppler Wind Lidar in Space. The satellite was declared operational in May 2020, and flew until July 2023, with near-real-time operational data ceasing in April 2023. This page contains an archive of monthly monitoring plots from the operational phase of the mission, comparing the observations to global model background fields from the Met Office Unified Model.