The wind field is an important parameter characterizing the dynamic characteristics of the Earth’s mid-upper atmosphere system. It is also necessary basic data for operational work and scientific research in the fields of meteorological forecasting, space weather, and climatology. Passive optical remote sensing based on optical interferometer satellite payloads is a main technical method of obtaining wind field data in the middle and upper atmosphere.

Space-borne interferometer payloads have been developed internationally for the detection of wind fields in the middle and upper atmosphere for more than half a century. There have been in-depth studies on the detection mechanism of wind fields in the middle and upper atmosphere, the physical characteristics of detection sources, the principles and data inversion of various wind measurement interferometers, satellite observation modes, atmospheric scattering, and radiation transmission. A complete theoretical system has been formed. Through the accumulation of global wind field observation data from payloads such as HRDI, WINDII, and MIGHTI, considerable basic observation data have been obtained for horizontal atmospheric wind field models and atmospheric temperature models, and the study of the dynamics and thermodynamic properties of the Earth’s atmosphere has been promoted. Many research results have been produced in the fields of space weather forecasting, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric composition changes, and momentum and energy transport between the upper and lower atmosphere.

However, the World Meteorological Organization clearly states that global wind field detection is the key to the detection of Earth’s atmosphere. The lack of direct global wind field measurement data remains one of the main shortcomings of the global observation system. The detection capability of wind fields in the middle and upper atmosphere is insufficient, and detection data are scarce, which do not satisfy the current requirements of atmospheric dynamics research, medium-term and long-term weather forecasting, space weather warning, and climatology research. China’s research on wind measurement interferometer technology started late and particularly lacked systematic theoretical research on space-borne interferometers for wind field detection. Since the 1970s, five generations of space-borne interferometer payloads for wind measurements have been launched internationally; however, China still lacks a global satellite remote sensing payload for measuring wind fields in the middle and upper atmosphere.

To promote the optical technologies of space-borne passive remote sensing for atmospheric wind fields measurement, it is necessary to summarize and discuss the progress made in existing research and future development trends to provide a reference for the development of future optical interferometer payloads for atmospheric wind field measurement.

This paper summarizes the research status and progress of the satellite-borne wind interferometer payloads that have been successfully launched internationally, including three technical systems: the Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI), wide-angle Michelson interferometer, and Doppler asymmetric spatial heterodyne interferometer. The technical principles of wind field detection, the overall technical scheme of the payload, and the application of observation data output are introduced.

In the order of launch time, the FPI payloads on OGO-6 and the DE-2, HRDI, TIDI, WNIDII, and MIGHTI payloads are introduced. The research goal of the FPI on OGO-6 is to retrieve the temperature of the mesospheric atmosphere by measuring the line shape and line width of the 630-nm airglow emission spectrum of the red oxygen atomic line. The instrument uses a limb observation mode to observe the 630-nm spectrum of the red oxygen atomic line at a height of 250 km in the emission layer. The atmospheric temperature within the height range of 200-300 km is retrieved from the line width of the spectrum, with a measurement error of 15 K. No wind field data have been reported so far.

DE-2 uses a highly stable single-standard FPI to observe the atmosphere with a limb observation mode and utilizes spectral and spatial scanning data to measure the temperature, tangential wind field, and metastable atomic O(¹S), O(¹D), O⁺(²P) concentration data in the middle atmosphere. Through the measurement of multiple airglow emission lines in the visible and near-infrared bands, considerable global wind field data are directly obtained, which are compared and validated with the observation results of ground-based equipment and thermal atmospheric environment models. The DE-2 FPI offers important contributions to the study of thermal atmospheric characteristics.

The HRDI measures the wind field, temperature, and volume emission rate in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, as well as the cloud top height, effective albedo, aerosol phase function, and scattering coefficient in the stratosphere. The HRDI is an FPI consisting of three series of planar etalons, which can be adjusted for specific wavelengths by changing the spacing between two etalons using piezoelectric ceramics. During its on-orbit operation, the HRDI measures the wind field vectors in the stratosphere at 10-40 km, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere at 50-120 km during the day, and the lower thermosphere at 95 km during the night. The peak accuracy of wind speed measurement in the mesosphere is up to 5 m/s, but there are limited public data below 60 km in altitude.

The TIDI is the first instrument to simultaneously detect wind fields in four directions, with a speed direction of ±45° and ±135° relative to the satellite. It uses a circular line imaging optical system (CLIO) and charge-coupled device (CCD) for detection and can operate during daytime, nighttime, and aurora conditions. Through data inversion, it can obtain global wind field vectors and temperature fields, as well as dynamic and thermodynamic parameters such as gravity waves, composition density, airglow, and aurora emissivity. The instrument design achieves a peak accuracy of 3 m/s for mesospheric wind speeds under optimal observation conditions, and a measurement accuracy of 15 m/s for thermospheric wind speeds.

WINDII detects the wind speed, temperature, pressure, and airglow emissivity in the middle and upper atmosphere (80-300 km) to study the physical motion processes of the stratosphere, mesosphere, and lower thermosphere and to study atmospheric tides, large planetary-scale structures, and enhanced wind fields generated by aurora. WINDII operated in orbit for 12 years and ceased operation in October 2003, obtaining more than 23 million images and providing rich data for global atmospheric research.

MIGHTI employs the limb observation mode to measure the global distribution of atmospheric wind fields and temperatures. It measures the green and red oxygen atomic lines at 557.7 nm and 630 nm, respectively, as the target spectral lines to retrieve wind speeds, and the oxygen A-band near 762 nm as the target spectral line to retrieve atmospheric temperatures. The results are in good agreement with ground-based FPI and meteor radar wind field detection data, thus providing dynamic and thermodynamic basic observation data for the study of strong disturbances in the ionosphere, energy and momentum transfer between the lower atmosphere and outer space, and the effects of solar wind and magnetic fields on the interaction mechanism of atmospheric space systems.

A detailed parameter comparison is presented in Table 2.

In general, the capability of space-borne atmospheric wind field detection based on passive optical remote sensing still has problems such as discontinuous altitude profile coverage, incomplete local coverage of wind fields in the middle and upper atmosphere, and limited spatial resolution of wind field data in the upper atmosphere. This paper discussed the future development trends of optical interferometer payloads for middle- and upper-atmosphere wind field detection, providing a reference for the development and planning of atmospheric dynamic characteristic detection payloads in China’s new generation of the FY meteorological satellite system.