The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting most aspects of everyday life, including air travelling. Commercial flights usually collects measurements of temperature, wind speed and wind direction in the atmosphere, and provide useful and accurate information for weather forecasts. However, measurements from aircraft have dropped by 90% in the last few weeks, resulting in fewer measurements for weather forecasts.
ESA’s Aeolus mission can partly fill this gap. Aeolus was built to study Earth’s winds, in particular how wind, pressure, temperature and humidity are interlinked. Since its operation, Aeolus has improved climate research and weather forecasts, especially in cloud-free areas.
