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CALIPSO & CLOUDSATCALIPSO and CloudSat
Image taken by the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites. (c) NASA / GSFC Science Visualization StudioOn April 28, 2006 NASA and CNES launched the CloudSat and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) spacecraft to study the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth's weather, climate and air quality. The satellites launched into a 705-kilometer (438-mile) circular sun-synchronous polar orbit, and flew in orbital formation as part of the "A-Train" constellation of three other Earth Observing satellites including Aqua, Aura and Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales' (CNES) PARASOL. Later, these satellites were joined in orbit by the JAXA GCOM-W satellite and the NASA OCO-2 satellite. Together, the A-Train satellites are increasing our understanding of the climate system and the potential for climate change. The CloudSat mission funded lifetime was 22 months to enable more than one seasonal cycle to be observed, while CALIPSO was planned for three years of on-orbit operation. Both missions have exceeded expectations for lifetime and performance, and they are expected to continue to operate beyond this 10-year milestone. A full catalog of CALIPSO and CloudSat data products is routinely produced, archived, and distributed to scientific researchers worldwide by data centers in the United States and France. They are now widely used throughout the international scientific community, as evidenced by a large number of related peer-reviewed publications (more than 1500), masters, theses and Ph.D. dissertations (more than 150), leading to a new way of looking at the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists are improving their understanding of Earth's climate system, but many questions remain. Weather and climate models, the prediction tools scientists use to study the Earth system, are complicated, and the information scientists use to build the models is incomplete. CloudSat and CALIPSO are collecting information about the vertical structure of clouds and aerosols unavailable from other Earth observing satellites. Their data are improving our models and providing a better understanding of the human impact on the atmosphere.
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