ESA lidar space missions and supporting activities

The European Space Agency´s (ESA´s) Living Planet Programme includes two types of complementary user driven missions: the research oriented Earth Explorer missions and the operational service oriented Earth Watch missions. Earth Explorer missions are also divided into the Core missions being larger missions demonstrating the capabilities of new technologies addressing issues of wide scientific interest, and the Opportunity missions with a similar scope but being smaller in terms of cost. Within ESA´s Living Planet Program, four lidar missions have been candidates, whereof two are selected and are being implemented. ESA´s first lidar mission, the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeolus), was chosen as the second Earth Explorer Core mission in 1999. It shall demonstrate the potential of high spectral resolution Doppler Wind Lidars for operational measurements of wind profiles and their use in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). Additional Spin-off products are profiles of cloud and aerosol optical properties. The second mission hosting a Lidar, EarthCARE, was selected as the third Earth Explorer Core mission in 2004. It is a joint European and Japanese effort and targets radiation/cloud/aerosol interactions and processes. The EarthCARE high-spectral resolution lidar, ATLID, shall measure cloud and aerosol optical properties. Global measurements of these parameters are also of great importance to NWP and climate modeling. Furthermore DIAL concepts for CH₄, H₂O and CO₂ monitoring were candidates for ESA´s 5th and 7th Earth Explorers. The missions were not selected, but initiated technology activities to raise the related technology levels [1,2].