This paper, “The ENVISAT Michelson interferometar for passive atmospheric sounding: MIPAS," was presented as part of International Conference on Space Optics—ICSO 1997, held in Toulouse, France.
The Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument (ALADIN) is the payload of the ESA’s ADMAEOLUS mission, which aims at measuring wind profiles as required by the climatology and meteorology users. 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 Proto- Flight Model (PFM)., two instrument models are developed: a Pre-development Model (PDM) and an Opto-Structure-Thermal Model (OSTM). The flight instrument design and the industrial team has been finalised and the major equipment are now under development. This paper describes the instrument design and performance as well as the development and verification approach. The main results obtained during the PDM programme are also reported. The ALADIN instrument is developed under prime contractorship from EADS Astrium SAS with a consortium of thirty European companies.
The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus will make direct measurements of global wind-fields. The aim is to provide global observations of wind profiles with a vertical resolution that will satisfy the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization.
The only payload is the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN), a direct detection Doppler lidar operating in the UV. It will determine the wind velocity component normal to the satellite velocity vector. These wind profile measurements will be assimilated into numerical forecasting models to improve the quality of the global three-dimensional wind fields. To make full use of the data, the global wind profile data must be made available to the weather prediction centers in near real time.
EADS-Astrium (UK and France) and their subcontractors develop Aeolus and ALADIN. Most subsystems have been completed, and the assembly of the Flight Model is well under way, and proceeding to a launch envisaged in late 2008. Details of ALADIN and several of its subsystems are reported in various papers of this conference.
Photon-induced contamination of optical surfaces is a major obstacle for space-bound laser applications. At
Laser-Laboratorium Göttingen, a setup was developed that allows monitoring transmission, reflection and fluorescence of
laser-irradiated
optical components under well-controlled vacuum conditions, in order to assess their possible optical
degradation due to radiation-induced contaminant deposition in orbit. In cooperation with the European Space Agency
ESA optical elements for the ADM-Aelolus mission were investigated. In order to perform global wind-profile
observation based on Doppler-LIDAR, the satellite ADM-Aelolus will be launched in 2011 and injected into an orbit 400
km above Earth's surface. ADM-Aeolus will be the first satellite ever that is equipped with a UV-laser (emitting at a
wavelength of 355 nm) and a reflector telescope.
For both high-reflecting mirrors and an anti-reflective coated windows long-term irradiation tests (up to 500 million laser
pulses per test run) were performed at a base pressure < 10-9 mbar, using a XeF excimer laser (λ=351 nm, repetition rate
1kHz). At this, samples of polymers used inside the satellite (insulators for cabling, adhesives, etc.) were installed into
the chamber, and the interaction of their degassing with the sample surfaces under laser irradiation was investigated.
Optical degradation associated with contaminant adsorption was detected on the irradiated sample sites as a function of
various parameters, including pulse repetition rate, view factor and coating material
The European Space Agency ESA is running a series of earth observation missions. In order to perform global windprofile
observation based on Doppler-LIDAR, the satellite ADM-Aelolus will be launched in April 2011 and injected
into an orbit 400 km above Earth's surface. ADM-Aeolus will be the first satellite ever that is equipped with a UV-laser
(emitting at 355 nm) and a reflector telescope.
At LLG, a setup was developed that allows monitoring transmission, reflection and fluorescence of laser-irradiated
optical components, in order to assess their possible optical degradation due to radiation-induced contaminant deposition
in orbit. For both a high-reflecting mirror and an anti-reflective coated window long-term irradiation tests (up to 500
million laser pulses) were performed at a base pressure < 10-9 mbar, using a XeF excimer laser (wavelength 351 nm,
repetition rate 1kHz). At this, samples of polymers used inside the satellite (insulators for cabling, adhesives, etc.) were
installed into the chamber, and the interaction of their degassing with the sample surfaces under laser irradiation was
investigated. Various paramters were varied including pulse repetition rate, view factor and coatings. Optical degradation
associated with contaminant adsorption was detected on the irradiated sample sites.
ADM-Aeolus is a dedicated satellite to provide global observations of vertical wind profiles. It will demonstrate the
capability of a spaceborne Doppler wind lidar to accurately measure wind profiles. Thus the mission addresses one of the
major deficiencies of the present Global Observing System. Simulations show that the wind profiles from Aeolus will
improve Numerical Weather Prediction analyses and forecasts in the tropics and extra tropics.
Aeolus is a precursor for an operational wind profiler system. It is under development for the European Space Agency
with Astrium Satellites as prime contractor. Launch is planned in 2009 for a 3 year mission.
There is likely to be a significant gap between the nominal end of life of Aeolus in late 2012, and the availability of wind
profiles from post-EPS instruments in 2019 or later.
The presentation will sketch a programme to fill this gap. It is based on copies of the present Aeolus satellite with minor
modifications, such as finer vertical sampling, an alternative line-of-sight, and measures to increase lifetime. The
programmatics required to fill the data gap will be discussed.
The Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN) is the payload of the ADM-Aeolus mission, which will provide direct measurements of global wind fields. It will determine the wind velocity component normal to the satellite velocity vector. The instrument is a direct detection Doppler Lidar operating in the UV, which will be the first of its kind in space.
ALADIN comprises a high energy laser and a direct detection receiver operating on aerosol and molecular backscatter signals in parallel. The laser is all solid-state, based on Nd-YAG technology and high power laser diodes. The detector is a silicon CCD whose architecture allows on-chip accumulation of the returns, providing photon counting performance. The 1.5 m diameter telescope is lightweight, all made of silicon carbide.
ALADIN is now in its final construction stage: the integration of the Flight Model is on-going. Most of the subsystems have been integrated; the payload performance and qualification test campaign will commence. This paper briefly describes the instrument design and provides insights on the development status and the results obtained so far. This regards in particular the receiver performance, the telescope development and the challenges of the laser.
The Aeolus satellite is developed for the European Space Agency by EADS Astrium Satellites as prime contractor for the satellite and the instrument.
The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus will be the wind lidar in orbit. The aim is to provide global observations of wind profiles with a vertical resolution that will satisfy the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization.
ADM-Aeolus will carry just one large instrument-the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Lidar Instrument (ALADIN). This is a direct detection lidar operating in the ultra-violet spectral region (355 nm), using a frequency-tripled Nd:YAG laser as transmitter. The 1.5-m-telescope in ALADIN collects the backscattered light and directs it to an optical receiver, which measures the Doppler shift of the received light. Wind profiles will then be derived showing the relative strength and direction of winds at different altitudes. Aeolus will determine the wind velocity component normal to the satellite velocity vector. These wind profile measurements will be assimilated into numerical forecasting models to improve the quality of the global three-dimensional wind fields.
EADS-Astrium (UK and France) and their subcontractors develop Aeolus and ALADIN. The structure models of satellite and instrument have been successfully tested in Summer 2005. The structure model of the satellite has been fully qualified, and the transmitter laser is under development at Galileo Avionica (Italy). Still, many challenges still have to be faced to demonstrate the reliable long lifetime operation of this laser before the launch in late 2008.
The Atmospheric Dynamics/Aeolus mission is the 4th Earth Explorer mission of the Earth Observation Explorer Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Its objective is to measure vertical tropospheric profiles of horizontal wind speed components. These global observations of wind profiles from space will improve the quality of weather forecasts and advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and climate processes. The 1.3-ton, 1.4-kW Aeolus spacecraft uses an incoherent Doppler Wind lidar (ALADIN) to measure wind speed. It uses a tripled-frequency Nd:YAG laser emitting ultraviolet pulses at a repetition rate of 100 Hz, during a measurement period of 7 sec repeated every 28 sec. The return signal is detected with a double interferometric receiver composed of a Fizeau interferometer to detect the Mie signal scattered by aerosols and a double-edge Fabry-Perot interferometer to detect the Rayleigh signal scattered by atmospheric molecules. A custom-made accumulation CCD is used to detect and integrate the return photons over several laser pulses. The spacecraft has recently passed the CDR level and launch is planned for 2008. An airborne version of the ALADIN instrument has been made with equipment developed during the pre-development phase of the mission. An interferometric receiver with a high-level of representativity to the space receiver and a laser transmitter breadboard have been refurbished and complemented with a telescope, a co-alignment mechanism and custom control and processing electronics to produce the first airborne, direct-detection Doppler Wind lidar worldwide. The lidar was functionally tested in flight in October 2005 and will be used in ground and airborne campaigns in 2006 and 2007 to prepare the exploitation of the Aeolus space mission.
Spaceborne lidars carry much promise for Earth observation and interplanetary missions to measure atmospheric parameters (wind velocity, optical extinction or species concentrations) and planet topologies. As the first European lidar mission, the European Space Agency is developing a Doppler wind lidar, ALADIN, to be launched on board ADM-Aeolus in 2008. ALADIN is a pulsed laser, emitting about 120 mJ of pulse energy in the UV. The mission duration is envisaged to be three years, which corresponds to several billion emitted pulses, thus imposing very stringent criteria on the longevity of the system. Laser-induced damage is one of the most significant issues here, in particular since laser-induced damage in space vacuum is still poorly understood. The European Space Agency has therefore established a test campaign to measure the power handling of all the instrument optics with laboratories in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France participating. Measurements are conducted at three wavelengths (1064nm, 532nm and 355nm) and with the introduction of several contaminants. The presentation covers laser-induced damage risk mitigation, the ESA test campaign and some test results.
Due for launch in 2008, the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeolus) has been selected as ESA's second Earth Explorer Core Missions within its Living Planet Programme. Its payload aims at providing measurements of atmospheric wind profiles with global coverage. The key element of ADM-Aeolus is the Atmospheric LAser Doppler Lidar INstrument (ALADIN), a Direct Detection Doppler Lidar in the ultra-violet spectral region operating on aerosol and molecular backscatter signals in parallel. The ALADIN instrument belongs to a completely new class of active optical earth-observation payloads with limited power requirements and high reliability over a three-year lifetime. It will be the first European Lidar in space. Technological challenges have been addressed in an early stage by a pre-development programme that consisted of designing, manufacturing and testing a functional representative model of the receiver of ALADIN (the Pre-Development Model, PDM), and a breadboard of the transmitter. The pre-development programme has been successfully completed and both receivers and transmitter are being refurbished in an airborne configuration.
The ALADIN airborne instrument demonstrator (A2D) will be used for ground and airborne campaigns prior to the launch of the satellite. This paper presents the main characteristics of the airborne instrument and the goals of the campaigns.
As one of three ENVISAT instruments dedicated for atmospheric chemistry research, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), a high-resolution Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) limb sounding spectrometer, will measure the Earth's limb emission in the infrared range (685 - 2410 cm-1, 14.6 - 4.15 micrometers ) on a global scale over a period of several years. The systematic processing of MIPAS scene and calibration data up to fully calibrated, geo-located limb radiance data and vertical profiles of atomospheric pressure, temperature and volume- mixing-ratios (VMR) of several atmospheric species requires a stable data acquisition and ground processing scenario and a number of calibration and characterization activities prior and after launch. After completion of the Flight Model FM test campaign and subsequent integration and test on the ENVISAT platform, MIPAS is now ready for launch by an ARIANE-5 launcher into an 800 km polar orbit. This paper gives an overview of the MIPAS instrument design, recalls the performance as measured in the instrument ground test campaigns and presents the preparations for the commissioning phase, comprising of an initial switch-on and data acquisition phase (SODAP) and a subsequent calibration/validation (CAL/VAL) phase preparing MIPAS for routine operation.
12 The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a high-resolution Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) limb sounding spectrometer, developed as one of the ESA payload instruments for the ENVISAT satellite. MIPAS is designed to measure concentration profiles of atmospheric constituents on a global scale over a period of several years and constitutes one of three ENVISAT instruments designed primarily for atmospheric chemistry research. The MIPAS Flight Mode (FM) test campaign was completed in 1999 and the instrument was then integrated on the ENVISAT platform, which now undergoes environmental and system testing. The launch is foreseen in 2001 by an ARIANE-5 launcher into an 800 km polar orbit. This paper gives an overview of the MIPAS instrument design, describes its calibration scheme, presents the performance as measured in the test campaigns, summarizes the characterization activities and outlines the principal operations to be performed during MIPAS commissioning in orbit.
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a high-resolution Fourier-Transform spectrometer which is being developed as one of the ESA payload instruments to be flown on-board the Envisat environmental satellite. MIPAS will be used to measure concentration profiles of atmospheric constituents on a global scale over a period of several years. The first MIPAS instrument model will undergo integration and test during early 1997, prior to which the individual subsystems will be fully tested and characterized. This paper summarizes the critical instrument and subsystem requirements and gives an overview of the MIPAS design to meet those requirements.
MIPAS, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding, is a high-resolution Fourier-Transform spectrometer designed to measure concentration profiles of atmospheric constituents on a global scale. It will observe the atmospheric emissions from the Earth horizon (limb) throughout the mid infrared region (685 - 2410 cm-1, 14.6 - 4.15 micrometers ), which will allow the simultaneous measurement of more than 20 atmospheric trace gases, including the complete NOy-family and several CFC's. MIPAS will provide global data coverage, including in particular the polar regions, where the stratospheric chemistry is currently exhibiting alarming changes.
The Michelson interferometer for passive atmospheric sounding (MIPAS) is a high resolution Fourier-transform spectrometer to measure concentration profiles of stratospheric constituents on a global scale. It observes the atmospheric emissions from the earth horizon (limb) throughout the thermal infrared region (685 - 2410 cm-1, 14.6 - 4.15 micrometers ), which allows the simultaneous measurement of more than 20 key trace gases, including the complete NOy-family and several CFCs. MIPAS is selected as an ESA-payload for the Envisat-1 project of the Polar Orbiting Earth-observation Mission POEM. Launch is planned for 1998.
KEYWORDS: Signal processing, Signal detection, Data processing, Transmitters, Telescopes, Receivers, Pulsed laser operation, Optical alignment, Sensors, Control systems
ATLID is a spaceborne scanning lidar system planned for implementation on the European Polar Platform, an earth observation satellite. It measures cloud top heights and atmospheric layers above ground. The operational cycles of ATLID are discussed.
Results of a study dealing with the conceptual design of a spaceborne atmospheric lidar instrument (ATLID) are presented. ATLID is designed to operate on the Polar Platform, a future earth-observation satellite. ATLID yields data on the height, strength, and depolarization properties of scattering layers (i.e., clouds, planetary boundary layer) in the lower atmosphere.
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