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Abstract
The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission ADM-Aeolus is scheduled for launch in April 2011. ADM-Aeolus is a polar orbiting satellite carrying a Doppler wind lidar to measure wind profiles from the surface up to 30 kilometres altitude. It is the first observing system to provide a global 3D coverage of atmospheric winds and as such fills in the major deficiency of the current global observing system as recognized by the WMO.
In preparation for launch we aim to optimize the vertical sampling of ADM by defining strategies for the distribution of the 24 vertical bins. The flexibility to change the vertical sampling scenario with a maximum of 8 times per orbit opens the possibility of targeted strategies for the various geographic regions.
Heterogeneous atmospheric scenes with large dynamical and optical variability are the most challenging for wind retrieval. Spatial distributions of the occurrence of large wind-shear events are presented as a function of season based on ECMWF model winds. A procedure to compensate for the underestimated small-scale structures in global model winds by using high-resolution winds from radiosondes and cloud resolving models is discussed (see also contribution of K. Houchi).
An algorithm to retrieve high resolution aerosol and cloud optical properties from CALIPSO data is presented. CALIPSO retrieved optical properties are collocated with ECMWF model winds to provide statistics of the occurrence of heterogeneous atmospheric scenes as a function of season and geographic location. Based on the generated statistics vertical sampling strategies for ADM will be presented that yield maximum information content of retrieved winds taking into account the atmosphere heterogeneity.