Aeolus - ESA'S Wind Lidar Mission, A Brief Status

ESA deployed the first Doppler wind lidar in space within its Earth Explorer Mission Aeolus in August 2018. Since then global wind profiles have been acquired for the improvement of weather forecasts on short and medium term. Current calibration and validation activities indicate the demanded positive impact from different forecast centers. In addition, Aeolus provides profiles of atmospheric backscatter and extinction coefficients that are supposed to become input for air quality models. The talk will provide an overview of the encountered technical challenges in flight and some preliminary results from impact studies.