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The 532 nm Green Optical Covariance Wind Lidar (GrOAWL) was flown on a NASA WB-57 research aircraft during the summer of 2016 to validate the instrument design and evaluate wind measurement capability and sensitivity. Comparisons with dropsondes and atmospheric models showed good agreement, demonstrating that a GrOAWL type instrument could provide high-value wind measurements from both airborne and space-based platforms

With the objective of providing tropospheric wind profile data over the mid-latitude oceans and tropics for data-starved weather forecast models, the Earth Venture Instrument (EV-I) Mission concept “Atmospheric Transport, Hurricanes, and Extratropical Numerical weAther prediction with the Optical Autocovariance Wind Lidar” (ATHENA-OAWL) was proposed in November 2013. The mission concept is described here along with a brief history of the OAWL system development and current development of an ATHENA-OAWL airborne demonstrator under NASA’s Venture Technology development.