ALADIN, the first Wind Lidar in Space: Development Status

The Atmospheric LAser Doppler INstrument (ALADIN) is the payload of the ADM-AEOLUS mission, which aims at measuring wind profiles as required by climatology and meteorology users. ALADIN belongs to a new class of Earth Observation payloads and will be the first Wind Lidar in space. The instrument comprises a high energy laser and a direct detection receiver operating on aerosol and molecular backscatter signals in parallel. ALADIN is now in its final construction stage: the Opto-Structural-Thermal-Model (OSTM) has been completed and successfully tested, mo st of the flight equipments have been delivered and the integration of Flight Model (FM) has started. The Aeolus satellite is developed for the European Space Agency with EADS Astrium as prime contractor for the satellite and the instrument.