Measuring Earth’s winds from space

Measuring Earth’s winds from space Today’s Video of the Day comes from the European Space Agency (ESA) and features a look at a new mission designed to measure winds on Earth from space.

The Aeolus  mission will launch later this year and the information gathered will help scientists make better climate predictions and better our understanding of weather patterns.

The Aeolus satellite will measure winds specifically in the lower part of the atmosphere, an area which until now has offered little wind data.  Measuring Hurricane Wind Speed from Space … (GNSS-R) technique takes measurements of Earth surface conditions by reading GPS signals after they bounce off Earth’s surface This method can sense many surface properties like ocean roughness, wind speed, soil moisture, and sea ice. 

They found that the GNSS-R satellite data successfully sensed wind speed conditions in each hurricane compared with these other data sources also Measuring Earth’s winds from space video as shown above shows They also captured rapid changes in wind speed that occur around the eye of the cyclone and it did not appear to be affected by any data loss. The wind speed algorithm the scientists used was developed for low to moderate winds.

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)