The satellite, called Aeolus and named after the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, is a one of a kind instrument that will study Earth's wind patterns from space, using a powerful laser pulse called Aladin.
Dr. Ralph Cordey, one of the lead researchers on the Aeolus project, said that the instrument was built to measure the wind in the Earth's atmosphere from space and it will be the first instrument that will be able to do this.
"The spacecraft will orbit around the Earth and the satellite will carry a laser that fires pulses of ultraviolet light. It carries a telescope that will pick up the faint reflective signals of that light that are scattered by the gas molecules in the Earth's atmosphere and also dust particles and aerosols. It will use the Doppler effect and decide to access the velocity of the dust gas that scatters the signals, so it measures the speed of the air," Dr. Ralph Cordey told Sputnik.
Aeolus will orbit the Earth for 3.5 years and during that period it will be used by the Met Office — UK's national weather service — to improve the forecast.
Dr. Cordey and his team hope that Aelous will help reduce the uncertainties in understanding weather patterns. The scientists also expect that the satellite will have a lot of impact on the world's tropical areas.
"Basically weather forecasts use computers that take in observations from satellites and that goes into a big model that predicts what will happen, so by adding this data, that is not in the model at the moment, we hope to improve the forecasts," Dr. Cordey told Sputnik.
As a result, it is believed that weather prediction will be more accurate. According to Dr. Cordey, the team expect that it will be a lot more precise and we should see this as soon as the satellite is launched.
The idea originated from a mission back in the 1990s. Dr. Cordey said that there have been many attempts and ideas to put lasers into space, and over time the technology to do this has improved.
"The laser was developed by a team in Italy, the telescope, a team in Toulouse and the satellite that carries the big instrument was developed in Stevenage [UK]," Dr. Cordey told Sputnik.
"Then there is the Assembly Integration and Test — that's when you are putting together and testing the instrument to see that it works.
"All the testing is not yet completed and the satellite will be transported to Toulouse [France] for testing to make sure it can stand up to the vibrations of going on a rocket. Then it will go to Belgium to be put in a vacuum chamber to see if it can survive in the vacuum of space. Finally, it will be launched from South America into space," Dr. Cordey added.
According to Dr. Cordey and his team, the UK will provide cutting-edge technology, combined with world-leading weather forecasting, which will make it a leading weather research hub.
