Earth’s wind has never appeared like this.
To mark the top of the Aeolus satellite, which is able to die in a fiery first-of-its-kind reentry this week, the European Space Agency (ESA) released a video titled “Lifetime of Aeolus,” a musical piece written for a small wind ensemble based on one 12 months of wind data collected by the satellite. The info was sonified — was sound — by assigning several types of Aeolus data to the pitch, volume and length of every musical note in “Lifetime of Aeolus.” Events recorded by the Aeolus satellite comparable to volcanic eruptions and storms are represented by drums or synthetic wind noises.
ESA launched Aeolus in 2018 so as order to assemble precise data on Earth’s winds that might be used to raised forecast tropical storms, hurricanes and other weather events. On the time, it was the primary spacecraft designed to measure Earth’s winds from orbit. The satellite ceased operations in early July, and ESA is now preparing to guide the satellite back down in an ambitious reentry operation.
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The complete “Lifetime of Aeolus” is just below half-hour in length and may be heard in its entirety on ESA’s Soundcloud page. In the total piece, each second represents someday of information collected by Aeolus because it orbited Earth 16 times every day.
In keeping with an ESA statement, each instrument within the orchestral arrangement of the Aeolus sonification represents a unique form of data; the very best, the piccolo, corresponds to data collected from the tops of clouds using the satellites lasers. The lower instruments, bassoon and bass clarinet, represent data collected much lower near Earth’s surface. The whole lot in between — clarinets, flutes and oboes — represent variables comparable to cloud density, air pressure, air temperature and wind velocity.
The COVID-19 pandemic meanwhile, underscores large sections of the song, represented by a pulsating synthesizer rhythm.
Composer Jamie Perera, who scored “Lifetime of Aeolus” using ESA’s data, said the piece is basically a time capsule, having captured major events that occurred through the satellite’s life.
“For me, it’s meaningful. Aeolus has gathered vast amounts of information that is been useful in all those situations,” Perera said. “As a strategy to tell that story, I feel it does the job very, thoroughly. We have got some world events, comparable to the pandemic, hurricanes and eruptions, which have happened while this satellite has been whizzing around above our heads.”
ESA is already lowering the orbit of the Aeolus satellite, which is anticipated to reenter the atmosphere on Friday (July 28). Some 80% of the satellite should burn up upon reentry, and the opposite 20% should splash down safely within the Atlantic Ocean, ESA officials have said.