ESA’s Doppler Wind Lidar Mission, Aeolus, was successfully launched on 22 August 2018, and will reach its intended minimum lifetime of 39 months on 1 December 2021. Recently, the mission was granted an extension until end 2022 by ESA member states. Aeolus is a demonstrator for future operational missions, providing vertical profiles of the tropospheric and lower stratospheric wind field for the improvement of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and atmospheric dynamics research. Currently, Aeolus winds are operationally assimilated at 5 national and international meteorological centers (ECMWF, DWD, Météo-France, UK MetOffice and NCMRWF). On-going research also show that Aeolus helps to better determine the tropospheric and lower stratospheric circulation. The largest weather forecast improvement from assimilation of Aeolus winds is seen in the tropics, over the oceans and in polar areas, where the atmosphere is currently not well sampled on small scales. In addition, Aeolus provide valuable profile information of aerosol and cloud layer optical properties. Further information about the mission is available on "www.esa.int/aeolus" and "https://earth.esa.int/eogateway/missions/aeolus".

Aeolus' 3rd "Aeolus NWP impact and L2B product quality Working Meeting" will take place via Webex on 1 December 2021 from 13 - 18 CET and on 3 December 2021 from 13 - 18 CET.

The meeting objective is to bring the CAL/VAL teams assessing the Aeolus L2B product wind quality and performing NWP impact assessments together, to discuss the status and further evolution of the product quality and impact assessment. A further objective is to plan the next steps in preparation for the future DWL/Aeolus-2 ESA and EUMETSAT candidate met mission.

The Webex meeting information will be shared with participants who have registered by 1 November 2021 (see the "Registration" tab). The meeting agenda will become available in early November 2021 (see the "Programme" tab).