Since then, Aeolus has consistently delivered high quality data and has gone above and beyond its original mission. From stepping in to provide missing wind measurements that used to be taken by planes before covid, to its data being deemed so valuable that it has been adopted for daily weather forecasting. Indeed, the volume of data also clearly sets it apart, since this one satellite is delivering more wind data than all existing ground-based measuring systems. And after three years in orbit Aeolus has now exceeded its design lifetime and is still going strong.

Philippe Pham, Airbus' Head of Earth Observation & Science concludes: 'That Aeolus data is now being used as part of the operational weather forecasting flow demonstrates its quality and reliability. Built as a one-off research mission, Aeolus is truly exceeding all expectations - testament to our engineers' skill and determination in developing this new technology. Its success also paves the way for a possible future fleet of Doppler wind Lidar satellites in space.'

Not bad for a test satellite.

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Airbus SE published this content on 20 August 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 August 2021 03:13:09 UTC.