Students blown away by Aeolus

“I think Thorsten would agree that answering the questions of the school students today, seeing their enthusiasm for Aeolus, space technology and Earth science, was one of the best moments of our lives,” said Aeolus Mission Manager, Tommaso Parrinello.

He was addressing delegates at the Aeolus Science Conference dinner just hours after Panagiota (Yota) Asimakopoulou, a teacher and PhD candidate at the University of Athens, had wowed 150 school children from the island of Rhodes with an immersive exploration of ESA’s wind mission, Aeolus.

The education package, designed with guidance and support from ESA Education and ESERO, aimed to engage young minds and ignite their curiosity about space.

In the room right next door, 80 of the world’s leading weather experts and Earth observation scientists were exploring the unique achievements of Aeolus, the first ever laser put in space to measure global winds. Some of them, including National Observatory of Athens (NOA) researchers Maria Tsichla (who helped design the workshop), Ioanna Tskikoudi and Peristera Paschou, let the students get hands-on with the kit scientists use to measure Earth’s winds. A huge hit was the large helium balloon used to take radiosondes high into Earth’s atmosphere, a vital piece of equipment for weather forecasters. Ioanna sent many up into the skies above Cape Verde, whilst Peristera shone lidar beams up from the ground, to help validate data from Aeolus as the satellite beamed down pulses of UV light from above.

Above and beyond

Much like the trailblazing Aeolus mission it celebrated, the workshop went above and beyond. A series of fun experiments helped students understand the fundamental physics that makes our Earth gusty. A clever trick with a lighter and a tea bag never failed to draw applause as we learned how hot air rises. As the flame burns, air inside the tea bag gets hotter and less dense, so eventually rises. An experiment using two bottles attached at the neck helped students understand some important aspects of weather that Aeolus has shone some light on, such as tropical cyclones. By adding some figurative wind shear, in this case a small spin of the bottle, a tornado-like swirling vortex of water appears as it drains into the bottle below.

With fine mist and a laser, we also had a great visual lesson in how the UV light beamed down by Aeolus scatters back off air molecules, water droplets and particles such as dust. By detecting the change in frequency of light that has scattered back to Aeolus, thanks to the Doppler effect we can understand the speed of the wind. A nifty trick helped ingrain the concept of the Doppler effect. Yota whirled a buzzer around her head as she walked up and down the room, replicating the effect of an ambulance - the sound of which gets quieter and lower in pitch the farther away it is. Besides the helium balloon, there was more weather measuring equipment to get hold of, too.

Of course, no space science workshop would be complete without sending a water rocket high into the blue Rhodian sky. Aeolus was blasted into space on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 22 August 2018. Soon, after a successful mission, it’ll be coming back home to Earth.

Rocket scientist rockstars

The reception the Aeolus scientists received from the students was overwhelming! The applause was akin to a rock concert, as was the interest. A seemingly never-ending queue snaked around the room to ask questions to Aeolus Mission Manager, Tommaso Parrinello and ESA’s Head of Atmospheric Section, Thorsten Fehr. It was enthusiasm stoked up through getting a rare and immersive insight into the life and work of scientists. “In 2018, the ‘Teach with Space’ training programme of ESA Education showed me that space also ‘rocks’ for climate education,” said workshop leader Yota. Aeolus was the perfect mission for demonstrating the power of space-based learning. “We were overjoyed to see students and teachers fully embracing this belief!”.