Low-cost mission architecture for global tropospheric wind measurements

Tropospheric wind measurements are of great meteorological and tactical value, but are presently not available on a global basis. The primary obstacle to a space-based Doppler wind LIDAR mission capable of obtaining these measurements has been the cost and risk associated with flying high power lasers and large telescopes in low-earth orbit. This paper presents an alternative approach that would result in a low-cost, low-risk responsive approach to deploying a global tropospheric wind measurement system.