Airbus wins contract to build Aeolus-2 weather satellite for ESA

Investing.com -- Airbus Defence and Space signed a contract with the European Space Agency to design and build the Aeolus-2 wind sensing satellite at a ceremony held at ESA's UK headquarters ECSAT at Harwell on Thursday.

The new satellite will succeed the original Aeolus mission, which Airbus built and launched in 2018. The first satellite delivered high-resolution vertical wind profiles from space and enabled a 4% improvement in numerical weather forecasting before ending operations in 2023.

"Aeolus exceeded expectations and demonstrated the transformative impact that space-based wind observations can have on weather forecasting. Aeolus-2 represents the natural evolution of that achievement – from pioneering research to an operational service that will benefit citizens and businesses worldwide," said Simonetta Cheli, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes.

UK Space Minister Liz Lloyd said Airbus Defence and Space in the UK will play a leading role in the project. "Aeolus-2 will deliver real benefits for people across the UK, from more accurate weather forecasts that protect lives and communities, to the highly skilled jobs that come from being a key partner in Europe's most ambitious space science programmes," Lloyd stated.

The satellite will carry a Doppler wind lidar with ultraviolet lasers that will scan from ground level to 30 kilometers altitude, taking measurements every 0.01 seconds. The system will cover the entire globe every seven days. Aeolus-2 will include an additional detector to measure aerosols in the atmosphere.

Light from the lasers will bounce off particles including dust, ice and water droplets. The telescope will collect scattered light to determine wind speed and direction based on the Doppler shift of the particles.

The satellite will orbit Earth 15 times daily from an altitude of 450 kilometers and deliver data to users within 120 minutes of the oldest measurement in each orbit. ESA is developing the mission in partnership with EUMETSAT, with users including the UK Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

The mission has a planned lifetime of 5.5 years.

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