The European Space Agency´s Earth Explorer Mission´s
satellite, Aeolus, launched on the 22 August, 2018, is one
of their satellites to adress some key scientific challenges
identified by the scientific community; this is done by
applying new observing techniques.

The Aeolus´satellite´s object is to probe the lower most
30 km of the atmosphere, so to acquire the characteristics
of the Earth´s windsystem, "on a global scale".
The instrument used is a Doppler wind lidar, Aladin.

The observations are close to real time and, "will improve
the accuracy of numerical weather and climate predictions;
they will also advance our knowledge on tropical processes
and dynamics relevant to climate variability."

Weather forcasts have improved considerably in recent
years, still, new more reliable data on windprofiles, will
"improve accuracy further."

Tomorrow, NASA:s ICEsaf-2 satellite will be launched
with the objective to measure "the hight of our changing
Earth"; 10.000 laser pulses per second will measure the
distance between the spacecraft and Earth´s surface.

The laser in question, the Advanced Topographic Laser
Altimeter System (ATLAS), will create a third
dimensional global "portrait" of our Earth; thereby
providing scientists with precise height measurements,
to track changes of terrain "in glaciers, sea ice, forests
and more."

Together with the GraceFo-project, where two twin
satellites, actually, weigh the water resources of the
Earth; tracing its movement and thereby being able
to monitor the "monthly changes in the distribution
of mass within and among Earth´s atmosphere,
oceans, land and icesheets, as well as within the solid
Earth itself."

The two twin satellites are continually exchaning
microwaves signals, and the gravitational pull of
these water movements affect the distance between
the two satellites, thereby giving scientists a precise
record to evaluate.

Together, with hundreds of friendly Eagles, from all
over the World, they are up there, a glimmering field
of Grace, working for us, for you and me, 24/7.

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Doppler wind lidar (line 9):
"Atmospheric lidar is a class of instrument that uses
laser light to study atmospheric properties from
the ground up to the top of the atmosphere."
Wikipedia

The Doppler effect: "(or the Doppler shift)
is the change i frequency or wavelength of a wave
in relation to observer who is moving relative
to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian
physicist Christian Doppler, who described the
phenomenon in 1842."
Wikipedia