News

A major project milestone was reached with “first light” of the first EULIAA atmospheric lidar at the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmospheric Research (ALOMAR), about 300 km north of the Arctic Circle.
Developed jointly by all partners over three years, the mobile system – powered by a custom Alexandrite laser from Fraunhofer ILT and high‑durability optics from Altechna – is installed in the ALOMAR telescope hall and measures in three directions (vertical and two tilted beams) both day and night, including during aurora.
Initial wind measurements up to >20 km were successful, and now full‑scale, autonomous, multi‑angle operation has begun as the first station in a Europe‑wide validation campaign, with data planned for near‑real‑time delivery to climate and weather databases.

Within a very short time, the EULIAA team from several partner institutions set up, tested and integrated the innovative atmospheric lidar system at the ALOMAR observatory.
All subsystems are now operational, the lidar is aligned within the telescope hall, and final integration work has been completed.
The team prepared the system for its first atmospheric measurements, marking the transition from lab to full Arctic deployment.

The first novel atmospheric lidar system of the EULIAA project was transported from IAP in Germany to Andøya Space in Norway.
At the ALOMAR observatory, this system initiates a pan‑European validation campaign under demanding environmental conditions, testing portability and robustness.
The close cooperation between Andøya Space and IAP teams during transport and on‑site setup demonstrated that such a complex, highly sensitive instrument can be moved 3,000 km and re‑deployed successfully.

At the German Aerospace Congress (DLRK) of DGLR, Fraunhofer ILT presented EULIAA’s atmospheric lidar systems and their potential applications.
Beyond providing wind and temperature data for meteorological models, the talk explored a wide range of additional use cases for the technology.
Feedback from the aerospace community offered valuable input for further development and potential future collaborations.

The EULIAA project was presented at the European Meteorological Society (EMS) 2025 Annual Meeting in Ljubljana.
Participants from European weather services showed strong interest in the novel technology for high‑resolution, high‑accuracy profiles of wind, temperature and aerosols from 5 to 50 km altitude.
The event helped to build anticipation for upcoming field campaigns and data releases.