ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE
Science and Validation Workshop
13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

LESSONS LEARNT FROM AEOLUS CAL/VAL
Sebastian Bley1, Oliver Reitebuch2, Jonas von
Bismarck3, Anne Grete Straume3, Holger Baars1,Thorsten Fehr3 Dimitri Trapon1
1TROPOS, 2DLR, 3ESA

5 years Aeolus DISC and Cal/Val at a glance
Launch on
22/08/2018

12 May 2020:
Public release of wind productsFirst wind on 12 Sept 2018
Hot-Pixel fix operational on 14/06/19

28 July 2023:
Aeolus assisted re-entry

Altitude in m

Rayleigh HLOS wind in m/s

Data release to
Cal/Val teams
on 18/12/2018

Public release ofL2A aerosol
product
12 July 2021

January 2022:
Aeolus data helped totrack Hunga Tonga
volcanic eruption

22 November 2022:

22-26 May 2023:
Aeolus ScienceConference

30 April 2023:
End of nominal
operations andstart of EOL
activities

Public release of 3rd
reprocessed dataset→ 4 years of highquality Aeolus data
available to thepublic© 2023 Aeolus DISC. All rights reserved.

ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

28 March –01 April 2022:
3rd Anniversary
Conference inTaormina

We are one Aeolus team

Allow interaction between
validation, science, NWP,industry and mission
expert teams
Being experimental canbring unexpected findings
Be earth explorers
NWP working meeting, September 2019, Darmstadt
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Early data access to validation teams pays offAeolus data products were early released to Cal/Val teams after 3 months already in thecommissioning phase, although several issues were known with the product quality…

Input from Cal/Val teams provided evidence to also release the wind products to public users
in May 2020 (after several corrections have been implemented).
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Regular updates to validation teams required

Courtesy of Dimitri Trapon et al., L2A user guide➢ Tuning of horizontal resolution (N/P setting)➢ N=number of measurements accumulated in one BRC➢ P=Number of pulses in one measurement➢ Request to improve horizontal resolution also triggered fromCal/Val teams
Courtesy of Alexander Geiß, LMU➢ Wind and aerosol/cloud processor updates (usually every six months)➢ Information when new product versions become available!

ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Flexible range bin settings highly increased science impact➢ One Aeolus profile consists of 24
vertical range bins distributed
between ground and 30 km➢ Vertical resolution varies between
500 m and 2 km

➢ Planning was done in the range binsetting working group during regularmeetings every six months and uponad-hoc requests➢ This flexibility allowed to react on
temporary events (e.g. volcaniceruptions, campaigns)

ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Flexible range bin settings highly increased science impact➢ Tonga RBS setting, highest sampling with ALADIN in the mission➢ Activated after ad-hoc request following the Tonga eruptionESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Communication platform brings teams together➢ Not only one direction information of news, instrument settings, baseline updates, documentation,
but also Cal/Val questions, discussions and preliminary results of ESA, DISC and Cal/Val teams➢ Open communication stategy but restricted to registered Cal/Val users➢ At the end of the Aeolus mission, 499 users have been registered to the Aeolus Cal/Val confluence
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Joint validation campaigns including aircrafts

Image: Instrumental
setup during Joint
Aeolus TropicalAtlantic Campaign(JATAC)➢ Complementing profile to profile comparisons from ground-based validation stations, aircraft campaigns
allow analysis of larger spatial domains
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Validation throughout the whole mission is important➢ Continuous validation of the products
is essential for the quantification (andcorrection) of biases/random errors
which need to be taken into accountfor scientific studies➢ Also after the end of the mission,validation is required for the
reprocessed datasets (with corrections
that were not in place for previous
processor versions)

Image: Aeolus Rayleigh clear wind productbias (top) and random error (bottom) from
NWP monitoring and confirmed by validation
teams. Source: Aeolus Cal/Val synthesis
report.
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Inform validation teams when to measure➢ Sounds trivial, but it isn’t.
➢ Not everyone is familiar with the orbit tools.
➢ Overpass tables can help overcoming hurdle.

Aeolus overpass predicted with webbased OPOT tool within EVDC (talks byAnn Mari Fjaeraa & Jarek Dobrzanski onThursday)
Aeolus overpasses predicted with ESOV (talk by Montse Pinol Sole on Thursday).
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), ItalyListening to recommendations from validation teams
Changed N/P settings have a big influenceon the random error → Further increasing
accumulated laser shots per measurement
could be an option to compensate for thedecreasing signal intensity

Missing cloud
screening is currently
largest problem.
Timeliness needs to be considered,
when implementing range-bin
settings for specific atmospheric
events of limited duration, e.g.
volcanic eruption, biomass burning
aerosol

Provide an interim possibility for exchange of informationand discussion among the Cal/Val teams(e.g. 1 day on-line meeting) between the Cal/Valworkshops

Aeolus Follow-On: Improve vertical resolution
and include depolarization channel
measurement for an Aeolus Follow-On mission
to enhance aerosol product capabilities; allow
cloud screening on laser shot level

Further user support needed
because of different products(SCA, MLE, AEL-PRO)

Include cloud flagwithin product

Prominent place on the Cal/Val
confluence for blocklisted dataperiods

ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy

Follow on: Improvevertical resolution
up to 100 mThank you!

Group photo from Aeolus Cal/Val and science conference in March 2019 in Frascati
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop | 13 – 17 November 2023 | ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy