On the derivation of zonal and meridional wind components from Aeolus horizontal line-of-sight wind

Abstract

Abstract. Since its launch in 2018, the European Space Agency's Earth Explorer satellite Aeolus has provided global height resolved measurements of horizontal wind in the troposphere and lower stratosphere for the first time. Novel datasets such as these provide an unprecedented opportunity for the research of atmospheric dynamics and provide new insights into the dynamics of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region. Aeolus measures the wind component along its horizontal line-of-sight, but for the analysis and interpretation of atmospheric dynamics, zonal and/or meridional wind components are most useful. In this paper, we introduce and compare three different methods to derive zonal and meridional wind components from the Aeolus wind measurements. We find that the most promising method involves combining Aeolus measurements during ascending and descending orbits. Using this method, we derive global estimates of the zonal wind in the latitude range 79.7∘ S to 84.5∘ N with errors of less than 5 m s−1 (at the 2σ level). Due to the orbit geometry of Aeolus, the estimation of meridional wind in the tropics and at midlatitudes is more challenging and the quality is less reliable. However, we find that it is possible to derive meridional winds poleward of 70∘ latitude with absolute errors typically below 5 m s−1 (at the 2σ level). This further demonstrates the value of Aeolus wind measurements for applications in weather and climate research, in addition to their important role in numerical weather prediction.