VirES for Aeolus

VirES for Aeolus is a free online service for working with data from ESA's Aeolus Earth Explorer mission, the first satellite to provide global wind-profile information from space. Aeolus carried ALADIN, a direct-detection Doppler wind lidar operating in the ultraviolet (355 nm) that profiled winds from the surface up to 30 km, plus aerosols and clouds. The satellite operated from 2018 until it was retired in April 2023, so the service now gives access to the mission archive.

EOX IT Services develops and operates the service on behalf of ESA. It has three parts:

• Web client: a browser interface with an interactive 3D globe, on which measurement curtains can be previewed, and a configurable analytics panel for scatter plots and time series. Data can be filtered by space, time or parameter and the subset downloaded.
• Virtual Research Environment (VRE): a pre-configured JupyterLab workspace in the cloud for each user, with tutorial notebooks for every product. The VRE's stated aim is to lower the barrier to entry for researchers who want to use Aeolus products.
• Machine-to-machine interface: a low-level API based on the OGC WPS protocol, used directly or through the VirES Python Client (viresclient), with token authentication.

Level 1B, Level 2A (aerosol and cloud), Level 2B (winds) and Level 2C (ECMWF-assisted wind fields) products are public after registration. The service supports visual and statistical comparison with numerical weather prediction models and ancillary data. ESA reports scientists using VirES to study the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption, assess wind profiles in monsoon regions and feed observations into weather forecast models. ESA's July 2024 Baseline 16 announcement directs users to VirES to view, analyse and download the reprocessed data.