Topics

Chair: TBD – Co-Chair: TBD

This topic encompasses the exploration and study of Mars and the Moon, focusing on missions that involve rendezvous operations. It includes the development and deployment of Lidar-equipped rovers and landers for surface exploration, as well as the technologies and strategies required for successful rendezvous maneuvers in space. Research in this area aims to advance our understanding of planetary surfaces and improve the precision and reliability of spacecraft docking procedures, which are critical for future interplanetary missions.

Chair: TBD – Co-Chair: TBD

Lidar in space is an emerging technology now being developing to fit applications where passive sensors cannot meet current measurement requirements. Lidar technology is evolving rapidly and lidar systems have been used in a number of applications to study the atmosphere, land surface, and ocean. The new and emerging space lidar technologies are focused on highly electrically efficient solid-state or fiber-based laser transmitters, advanced telescope concepts with novel light weight optical and opto-mechnical design of high rigidity and long term stability and low noise, high quantum efficiency, UV-IR photedetector and avalanche photo diodes for direct and coherent detection.

This session will focus on the topics related to new and emerging transmitter, telescope and detector related technology advancement for enabling space-based lidar measurements of winds, carbon dioxide, methane, clouds and aerosols, water vapor, ozone and laser ranging and ice-topography applications.

These laser-based active techniques also face a number of technical challenges. One in particular, the long term reliability of a number of key laser components (diodes, optics, optical coatings) in the vacuum and radiation environment of space, is not as well understood as in the low-radiation, high pressure environment on earth. Due to the relatively high power requirement of many lidar systems, thermal control of space-based lidar systems also presents some unique challenges.

The session will include invited talks describing new and emerging space lidar technologies and their reliability as well as a panel of experts discussing the future thrust for lidar solutions.

Chair: TBD – Co-Chair: TBD

Space-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems have become essential for monitoring atmospheric composition, topography, and surface dynamics from orbit. Ensuring the reliability of these complex instruments is critical for mission success, given the harsh conditions of space, including temperature fluctuations, radiation exposure, and prolonged operation without maintenance.

This session will examine the key factors influencing the reliability of space LiDAR systems, focusing on design robustness, component selection, and redundancy strategies. Case studies from recent space missions will be presented, highlighting lessons learned from both successful deployments and instrument failures. Additionally, advancements in fault-tolerant electronics, thermal management, and long-term calibration techniques will be discussed.

The session will also cover innovative approaches to reliability testing, including ground-based simulations of space environments and in-orbit performance monitoring. Attendees will gain insights into improving the operational lifespan and data integrity of future space LiDAR missions, fostering more resilient and accurate Earth observation systems.

Chair: TBD – Co-Chair: TBD

A growing number of innovative operational and research EO satellite missions need reference measurements from ground for their validation. Luckily this correlates with an increasing number of ground-based/airborne/ship-borne mobile lidars available for field-deployment.

Airborne campaigns allow along-track underflights of overpassing satellites, mimicking the observing geometry, and in some cases even the payload specifications (i.e., airborne demonstrators), often accompanied by complementary active, passive and in-situ sensors providing contextual scientific information.

Especially atmospheric remote sensing lidar missions, such as Calipso, Aeolus and EarthCARE, benefit from direct validation through ground based HSRL systems. Apart from continues correlative data provided from ground-based lidar networks, mobile systems can be deployed in positions favorable in terms collocation criteria within field campaigns.

Space Agencies (ESA, NASA) with scientific and engineering partners, have recently developed and operated ground based reference lidars in the context of large joint international field campaigns, and airborne & ground based campaign roadmaps point towards exciting years ahead.

Chair: Pol Ribes-Pleguezuelo – Co-Chair: TBD

In exploration missions, the maturation of laser technologies has enabled Lidars to replace somewhat outdated microwave systems. These systems range from miniaturized altimetry systems capable of measuring the distance to asteroids for planetary defence missions, to compact imaging Lidars for planetary landing, rendezvous or docking.

In the beginning, Altimetry Lidars were developed for space missions for basic ranging. Since then, these devices have been implemented in different missions for:

• Detection and ranging, and additionally for landing applications,
• Planet surface morphology,
• Vegetation height and profile monitoring.

More recently developed Imaging or 3D Lidars are a key technology for current and future space applications, which include:

• Close proximity guidance and navigation for rendezvous and docking of spacecraft,
• Automated descent and landing of spacecraft onto planets or other bodies,
• Orbital satellite servicing, or debris removal,
• Navigation and control of robots and rovers during planetary exploration,
• Shape sensing of structures.

The exploration of Mars and the Moon, shall be driven with Lidar equipped rovers and landers. Whilst, the technology for these “smaller” systems is not different from the larger atmospheric Lidars presented in previous sessions, the additional applications and challenges introduced are countless.

Chair:  Chair & Co-Chair:  coming soon

Interferometric lidars represent a cutting-edge technology in atmospheric and environmental sensing, leveraging the principles of optical interference to achieve high-resolution measurements of atmospheric properties. These lidars utilize coherent detection methods to measure Doppler shifts, enabling precise determination of wind speed, particle velocity, and atmospheric turbulence.

This session will focus on recent advancements in interferometric lidar technology, including innovations in optical design, signal processing, and data interpretation. Key applications such as wind profiling, aerosol characterization, and turbulence detection will be explored, highlighting their relevance to meteorological research, climate studies, and environmental monitoring.

Participants will gain insights into the challenges and solutions associated with implementing interferometric lidar systems, including noise reduction, calibration techniques, and integration with other atmospheric observation platforms. The session will also discuss future directions in developing more compact, robust, and efficient interferometric lidar systems for field applications.

Chair: TBD – Co-Chair: TBD

The EarthCARE (Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission, a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aims to enhance our understanding of the interactions between clouds, aerosols, and radiation, which are critical for climate modeling and weather prediction.

This special session will highlight recent advancements and preliminary results from EarthCARE’s state-of-the-art instruments, including the Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID), Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI), and Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR). Presentations will cover data processing techniques, early observational data, and their implications for climate research and atmospheric science.

Furthermore, the session will address the integration of EarthCARE data into global models, potential applications in weather forecasting, and the mission’s role in validating climate simulations. Attendees will gain insights into ongoing research and collaborative efforts that leverage EarthCARE’s unprecedented observational capabilities.

Chair: Dirk Bernaerts – Co-Chair: TBD

Through their scattering and absorptive properties as well as their interactions, aerosols and clouds can produce a significant influence on the Earth’s radiation balance, and hence on climate. Cloud properties, precipitation and cloud lifetimes are intimately linked to aerosol properties. Pollution due to small size particles can be a threat to health especially in urban areas, and heterogeneous chemical processes can play a significant role in environmental modifications.

Optical and physical characteristics of aerosol particles and spatial distributions relative to their source locations are quite variable in time and space globally, especially in the troposphere. Volcanic aerosol plumes can have devastating effects on aircraft, and if the plumes reside in the stratosphere, significant effects on radiative transfer can occur as experienced, for example, after the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo.

Our oceans are strongly coupled to the atmospheres above them through various processes. Ocean surface height and winds, sub-surface temperature, biological activity, radiative and dynamical forcings at the ocean-atmosphere interface are all key parameters of the Earth system. New high resolution lidar altimetry missions are being proposed, and new techniques using lidar sounding are being explored for retrieving surface and sub-surface ocean properties. Air-sea gas transfer processes, ocean dynamics, biological activity or energy budgets can be revisited in the light of combined active and passive (optical and microwave) observations.

Together with the above, wind is one of the basic variables describing the state of the atmosphere. Improved knowledge of the global wind field in the troposphere and lower stratosphere is needed to improve numerical weather forecasts and to better understand and predict long-term climate change.

Wind profiles are measured by ground-based networks and from some commercial aircraft, but due to the limited coverage (mostly Northern Hemisphere extra-tropics) measurements from orbiting platforms are essential to get more uniform global coverage.

Among many possible techniques, lidar systems offer the best approach for obtaining wind profile observations globally with the required accuracy and coverage. The Winds Session will focus on all aspects associated with measurement of winds in space, including mission concepts, lidar technology, platforms, and scientific returns.

The session will include invited talks describing the status of wind programs, research objectives, science applications, and future plans presented by representatives of the major agencies that pursue space-based global wind measurements.

This session will focus on all aspects associated with the measurement of aerosols, clouds, ocean and wind properties from space, including combinations of multiple measurement techniques using active and passive approaches.

The session will include invited talks describing past, present and future approaches for these measurements. Extended abstracts from the lidar community for inclusion into the Workshop Proceedings are encouraged. A White Paper and Session Summary highlighting the major points discussed at the Workshop will also be included in the Proceedings.

Chair: TBD

Altimeter measurements of the elevation of the Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers, water bodies and land surface along with the height and vertical structure of vegetation and thickness of sea ice provide foundation data for science and applied purposes. The data is fundamental to understanding, modeling and predicting interactions within and between the solid Earth, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and atmosphere. The Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission began comprehensive, global lidar observations of these features, improving significantly upon the resolution and accuracy of spaceflight radar altimeters.

Operating during the period 2003 to 2009, ICESat employed a single-beam approach using a low pulse rate, high pulse energy laser transmitter at 1064 nm and digitization of the analog output from a silicon avalanche photodiode detector. Major accomplishments included monitoring the changing elevation of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and arctic sea ice thickness in response to climate change and providing a global map of biomass stored in forests.

The ICESat-2 mission, launching in 2017, will continue this time-series using a more efficient measurement approach in order to increase the number of beams to six. It will employ a high pulse rate, low pulse energy micropulse laser transmitter at 532 nm and single photon detection using a photomultiplier tube. The increased number of beams will improve spatial and temporal coverage and the accuracy of change measurements. Beyond ICESat-2 the goal is to achieve wide swath lidar mapping, rather than a few profiling beams, with spatial resolution of a few meters thereby greatly expanding the scope of science questions that can be addressed.

This will require a dramatic improvement in measurement efficiency, instrument performance and on-orbit data processing. This session will examine how spaceflight lidar technology has evolved to meet increasingly challenging requirements, in what ways science has been limited by available technology and mission implementations and where critical advances are needed to make the step to next-generation mapping instruments.

In parallel to the above mentioned Lidar instruments, active remote sensing using the conventional Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) technique provides a new and sensitive means for the measurement of the climate related atmospheric trace gases with high accuracy from space. Due to the fact that Lidar instruments carry their own light source global observation from space-borne platforms will enable measurements at all latitudes around the globe and during all seasons. From Lidar measurements, complementary information to the current observational system will give new insights into climate feedback from changing wetlands/biomasses and thawing permafrost in the Arctic.

In our session papers are solicited reporting on the status, development and application of new lidar technology and observational methods suited for measurements of the climate related trace gases such as CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O and O3 from space-borne platforms. Also papers on the development, application, and validation of ground-based and airborne greenhouse gas measuring systems serving as so-called pre-cursor experiments or those discussing future combined greenhouse gas observation scenarios with active and passive instruments are involved are also very beneficial for the topic of this session.