Laser technology! A real revolution in the European Aeolus research mission

After nearly five years in space, Aeolus is preparing to return to Earth as part of a European Space Agency mission that has studied the distribution of winds with unprecedented precision. The results achieved are thanks to ALADIN, a lidar that features the most powerful space laser transmitter available and was created by Leonardo with the support of the Italian Space Agency.

A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite, Aeolus, was launched in 2018 and is preparing to return to Earth after successfully studying the distribution of winds from 30km up to the ground.

The Aeolus satellite is equipped with ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument), a liDAR (light detection and ranging) consisting of a three-part telescope, receiver and laser transmitter, built by Leonardo in Italy with the support of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

It is the most powerful ultraviolet (UV) transmitter ever built for a space mission: firing more than 7 billion laser pulses, it orbits the Earth no less than 16 times a day, successfully covering the entire planet every day. It consists of more than 80 optical elements arranged with micron accuracy and is made with unprecedented innovative technologies and materials. A representative example is the oxygenation system inside the laser, which was developed to ensure that the beam does not deform or burn the internal components and materials to minimize light absorption while resisting very high power levels and avoiding energy dispersion or damage to the optics.

And laser technology is the real revolution for Aeolus: By generating pulsations of ultraviolet light sent into the atmosphere, lidar can highlight winds around the world. The great added value provided by this mission is to measure winds in areas that are difficult to reach by conventional detection means (balloons or aircraft), thereby providing a more comprehensive and global understanding of this phenomenon.

During its nearly five years in orbit, the mission has had a series of positive effects in many ways: it has helped make weather forecasts more accurate and improved understanding of climate phenomena and the consequences associated with global warming and air pollution. Based on the data reported by the mission, scientists hypothesize that in the future, it could help improve the prediction of hurricanes, as well as tracking and predicting the movement of dust emitted by volcanic eruptions and the like.

Between the end of operations and the closure of ALADIN, Leonardo, together with ESA and related industries, carried out further tests on the laser transmitter's transmitting capability, increasing its nominal power from about 4 million watts to about 10 million watts. This is a record that has never been achieved before by a space laser.

Source: Laser Network