As part of the campaign to prepare ESA’s Aeolus wind satellite for liftoff on 21 August 2018 from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, the team checked to make sure that the satellite fits atop the Vega launch adapter cone.
Aeolus uses powerful laser technology that probes the lowermost 30 km of our atmosphere to yield vertical profiles of the wind as well as information on aerosols and clouds. This will not only improve our understanding of how the atmosphere works and contribute to climate change research, but will also help to predict extreme events such as hurricanes and El Niño. While Aeolus is set to advance science, it will also bring considerable benefits to society by improving weather forecasts.