What's New
NOAA Supports Top Honor in Government Communicators Competition >> read more
NOAA Participates in Weather Modification Symposium >> read more
ESRL Participates in Gulf Region UAS Application Conference >> read more
ESRL Takes Leadership Role in UAS International Arctic Workshop >> read more
ESRL Hosts DHS-sponsored Workshop on New Concepts for Hurricane Modification >> read more
Successful Installation of New Release of Volcanic Ash Coordination Tool >> read more
 

Lidar

Simulation of a Satellite-Borne, Wind-Finding Lidar System

Along with the Environmental Technology Laboratory and the Environmental Modeling Center of NCEP, FSL partcipated in a two-year study of the potential impact of a wind-finding lidar that could be flown on a polar orbiting satellite. Doppler lidar measurements aboard a polar orbiting satellite could be used to infer atmospheric winds at multiple levels over the oceans. These observations, in theory, would lead to better forecasts downstream over the continents. Because of the cost and complexity of this technology, scientists are attempting to simulate the new system in advance and find out whether the additional observations will actually lead to better weather forecasts.