Taken inside the cleanroom when Aeolus was being built, this image shows the instrument’s two lasers. Problems with contaminated laser optics were a major reason for a decade-long delay in the wind lidar satellite's launch, and last month the energy output from the initial in-orbit source dropped enough to compromise the quality of the data being collected. ESA says that switching to the back-up laser has been successful. Photo: Airbus Defence and Space. |
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