European wind survey satellite launched

KOUROU ( French Guiana): A new satellite that will use advanced laser technology to track global winds and improve weather forecasts has been successfully put into orbit, launch company Arianespace said.

The Aeolus satellite – named after the guardian of wind in Greek mythology – was launched at 2120 GMT on Wednesday, after a 24-hour delay due to adverse weather.

Arianespace’s light-lift vehicle “Vega lofted its passenger during a flight lasting just under 55 minutes, with Aeolus placed into a sun-synchronous orbit,” the company said.

Sun-synchronous orbits allow satellites to always have a view of the sun so that their solar panels can always draw power.

The satellite “will probe the lowermost 30km of the atmosphere in measuring winds around the Earth,” Arianespace said.

Aeolus is part of the Copernicus project, a joint initiative of the European Union and the European Space Agency to track environmental damage and aid disaster relief operations.

The satellite is equipped with a single instrument: a Doppler wind lidar, an advanced laser system designed to accurately measure global wind patterns from space.

Arianespace described the satellite as the world’s first space mission to gather information on Earth’s wind on a global scale. — AFP