Overview
Space-Based LIDAR
Our commerce, economy, safety, and security all depend on how accurately we can predict the weather. For several decades, we’ve been on the cutting edge of developing space-based LIDAR technology for new science, tactical, and commercial applications—with a proven track record of delivering LIDAR that goes beyond expectations in terms of accuracy, lifespan, and scientific impact.
Filling the Greatest Unmet Need: 3D Winds
We are continuing this heritage by advancing the Optical Autocovariance Wind LIDAR (OAWL) technology, which is expected to produce wind profile measurements over more than 80 percent of Earth’s surface and provide twice as many measurements as current systems allow while meeting a critical observational need. This will give forecasters access to high quality 3D measurements of horizontal winds for the very first time, increasing our understanding of weather, water, and energy cycles, and climate processes and variability.
BAE Systems’ OAWL leverages heritage technologies from the CALIPSO mission, and has flown on NASA-sponsored test flights to push the system closer to a space-based mission. Together with grant funding from NASA, we have designed, built and validated multiple versions of the OAWL system, including the ATHENA-OAWL Airborne Demonstrator, the Green-OAWL (GrOAWL) which flew on NASA’s WB-57 jet.
OAWL Paper: Instrument & Development Pt.1
Learn more about the motivation, instrument concept, hardware descriptions, and more in this paper.
OAWL Paper: Instrument & Development Pt. 2
Learn more about the instrument’s initial airborne testing and how performance is projected to operate from space.
Why 3D Winds?
3D winds are the horizontal vector component of the 3D wind field. 3D winds are one of greatest observation gaps in the operational weather community.
3D wind measurements would benefit:
- extreme weather forecasting
- civil aviation
- military operations
- air quality forecasting
- commerce
Deep Heritage in Space-Based 3D Wind Measurement
Starting in 2004, the first Optical Autocovariance type receiver was built by us under Internal Research and Development (IRAD) funding. In 2008, under an Instrument Incubator Program grant from the NASA Earth Science Technology Office, we built the system into a full prototype of the Optical Autocovariance Wind LIDAR (OAWL). Since then, BAE Systems has partnered with NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office to further develop the mission concept and perform system validation.
GrOAWL
BAE Systems has designed, built, and validated multiple versions of the OAWL system. The most recent is a 532 nm Green-OAWL (GrOAWL). GrOAWL underwent airborne testing aboard the NASA WB-57 aircraft in summer 2016. Airborne testing serves to validate this future space-based system for ATHENA-OAWL.
GrOAWL wind speed and direction profiles are derived using two-look line of sight OAWL Doppler measurements acquired over the Gulf of Mexico on June 17th, 2016. The wind barb colors indicate the speed, and the barbs are pointing into the direction of the wind (i.e. winds around 4 km are mostly easterly, while winds above 6.5 km are more Northerly). The six slanted wind barb profiles shown in bold indicate speed and direction as measured by radiosondes dropped from the aircraft to validate the LIDAR measurement.
HAWC-OAWL
Our HAWC-OAWL (High spectral resolution LIDAR for Aerosols, Winds and Clouds) enables simultaneous Earth science measurements of winds and aerosols required for weather and air-quality forecasting. This instrument will advance the study of impacts of dust and aerosol transport on a global energy and water cycles, air quality and climate.
Click to learn more about the missing link in the global observing system.
Learn about the history of the 2011 flight including the final flight data results.
Learn about the OAWL instrument vs. the coherent detection LIDAR.
How technology is progressing in order to meet the demands of numerical weather prediction.
Read a system overview and science goals for OAWL.