ESA - ESA Spacecraft Operations - ADM-Aeolus

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ADM-Aeolus

The mission

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ADM-Aeolus will provide global observations of wind profiles from space to improve the quality of weather forecasts. This novel mission will also advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and climate processes.

Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab

The Flight Control Team

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Piere Bargellini, ADM-Aeolus Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM), is based at ESA's Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

Credits: ESA - J.Mai/juergenmai.com

Mission operations overview

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The project is based on the SS-18 ICBM, the world’s most powerful ballistic missile. The key components of the programme are the fleet of over 115 SS-18 (Satan) suitable for conversion into space launch vehicles, and four silos and all the required equipment deployed at Baikonur. To implement the programme the International Space Company Kosmotras was established in 1997 to be the project lead managing and marketing entity. Dnepr has a launch mass of 211 tons and the payload maximum mass of 4.5 tons. The first orbital launch of Dnepr-1 took place in April 1999. Thiokol Propulsion (USA) provides marketing support to Kosmostras.

Credits: Kosmotras

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The wind is observed orthogonal to the satellite ground-track, pointing 35° off nadir, away from the Sun. Observations cover 50 km along the flight direction, and are spaced 200 km apart. (H)LOS means (horizontal) line of sight.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

The ground stations
Kiruna, Svalbard

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The Kiruna S- and X-band station supports Envisat and ERS-2, and is scheduled to support CryoSat-2 in 2009. For ESTRACK, Kiruna hosts one 15m and one 13m antenna. Both operate in S-band for uplink and downlink and X-band for downlink. The station is located at Salmijärvi, 38 km east of Kiruna, in northern Sweden. The station is equipped for tracking, telemetry and command operations as well as for reception, recording, processing and dissemination of data from the sensor instruments onboard ERS-2 and Envisat.

The station is connected to the ESTRACK Control Centre (ECC) at ESOC via dedicated voice and data circuits. The station is remotely monitored and controlled from the ECC under nominal operating conditions. A mini control centre is located at the station to provide backup.

Credits: ESA-S.Corvaja

Ground segment & mission control system

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This mission uses SCOS-2000, the European standard mission control system developed at ESOC.

Credits: ESA

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Aeolus with ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument)

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The core space element of ADM-Aeolus is ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument), a direct detection lidar incorporating a fringe-imaging receiver (analysing aerosol and cloud backscatter) and a double-edge receiver (analysing molecular backscatter).

Credits: ESA

Last update: 15 March 2011

More information

ADM-Aeolus overview ADM-Aeolus brochure (pdf) Images, animations

Ground stations

Kiruna station Svalbard station