System definition of the ESA earth explorer WALES mission

Arnaud Heliere; Jean-Loup Bezy; Paolo Bensi; Paul Ingmann

doi:10.1117/12.463033

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8 April 2003 System definition of the ESA Earth Explorer WALES mission

Arnaud Heliere, Jean-Loup Bezy, Paolo Bensi, Paul Ingmann

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Proceedings Volume 4881, Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites VI; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463033
Event: International Symposium on Remote Sensing, 2002, Crete, Greece

Abstract

WALES (Water vapour Lidar Experiment in Space) is one of the three candidate missions that are currently considered for the future ESA Earth Explorer missions. The objective of the mission is to provide better insight into the distribution of water vapour and aerosol in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere for research and applications in climatology and numerical weather prediction. This is to be achieved by providing globally accurate profiles of water vapour concentration. A direct detection Differential Absorption Lidar has been studied in the frame of the WALES mission pre-phase A. The lidar is based on high power laser emitting several wavelengths in the 920-950 nm range, each wavelength being tunable and frequency locked. The backscatter signal is collected through a large telescope and filtered through narrow band filters. The concept and the expected performance of the instrument are discussed in this paper.

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Arnaud Heliere, Jean-Loup Bezy, Paolo Bensi, and Paul Ingmann "System definition of the ESA Earth Explorer WALES mission", Proc. SPIE 4881, Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites VI, (8 April 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463033

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