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For nearly two decades, its powerful radar has provided unprecedented cloud detail and helped predict global weather and climate. NASA mission CloudSat, which tracked hurricanes, counted global snowfall,
For nearly two decades, its powerful radar has provided unprecedented cloud detail and helped predict global weather and climate. NASA mission CloudSat, which tracked hurricanes, counted global snowfall, and achieved other firsts in weather and climate, has ended its mission. The mission was originally proposed as a 22-month mission, but the spacecraft was recently decommissioned after approximately 18 years of observing the vertical structure and ice/water content of clouds.
The spacecraft, which had reached the end of its useful life and could no longer make regular observations, was launched into orbit last month as planned, which will lead to its eventual decay in the atmosphere.
The Cloud Profiling Radar, launched in 2006, was the first 94 GHz (W-band) radar to fly in space. Thousands of times more sensitive than traditional ground-based weather radars, the device created a new image of clouds not as flat images on a screen but as three-dimensional slices of atmosphere covered in ice and rain.
Graham Stevens, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said scientists were able to observe clouds and precipitation together for the first time. “Without clouds, humans would not exist because they provide the fresh water necessary for life as we know it,” he said. “Because of their confusing characteristics, we sometimes call them clever little devils. Clouds have been a mystery in climate change prediction.”
Clouds have long hidden many secrets. Before CloudSat, we didn’t know how often clouds caused rain and snow around the world. Since launch, we’ve also come a long way in understanding how clouds can cool or warm the atmosphere and surface, and cause aircraft to icy.
CloudSat data has informed thousands of research publications and continues to help scientists make important discoveries, such as how much ice and water clouds the Earth contains and how clouds trap heat in the atmosphere, accelerating the melting of ice in Greenland and the poles.
Over the years, CloudSat has flown over powerful storm systems with names like Maria, Harvey and Sandy, peering beneath the swirling canopies of cirrus clouds. Cloud profiling radar penetrates cloud layers to help scientists study how and why tropical cyclones intensify.
Over the course of CloudSat’s life, there have been many problems with the spacecraft’s battery and the jet wheels used to control the satellite’s orientation that could have terminated the mission. The CloudSat team developed unique solutions, including hibernating the spacecraft during the dark portion of each orbit to save energy and direct it with fewer jet wheels. Their decision allowed Cloud Profiling Radar to continue operating until its closure in December 2023.
“Part of our NASA family is that we have dedicated and talented teams that can do things that haven’t been done before,” said Deborah Wein, JPL CloudSat project manager. “We got rid of these anomalies using techniques that no one had used before.”
CloudSat was launched on April 28, 2006, along with the CALIPSO lidar satellite (short for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation). The two spacecraft join an international group of satellites to monitor weather and climate in Earth orbit.
Radar and lidar are considered “active” sensors because they direct beams of energy (radio waves in the case of CloudSat and laser light in the case of CALIPSO) towards the Earth and measure how the beams reflect off clouds and fine particles (aerosols). atmosphere. Other science instruments in orbit use “passive” sensors that measure sunlight or radiation reflected from Earth or clouds.
CloudSat and CALIPSO circled the earth in sunsynchronous orbits from the North Pole to the South Pole, less than a minute apart, crossing the equator each day in the early afternoon and after midnight. Overlapping radar-lidar footprints slice through the vertical structure of the atmosphere to examine thin and thick clouds, as well as layers of airborne particles such as dust, sea salt, ash and soot that can affect cloud formation.
The impact of aerosols on clouds remains an important issue for global warming forecasts. The recently launched PACE satellite to investigate these and other questions and future missions aboard NASA’s Earth System Observatory will build on the legacy of CloudSat and CALIPSO for the next generation.
“The Earth in 2030 will be different from the Earth in 2000,” Stevens said. “The world has changed, the climate has changed. Continuing these measurements will give us new understanding of changes in weather patterns.”
The CloudSat project is managed by NASA JPL. JPL developed the Cloud Profiling Radar instrument with significant hardware input from the Canadian Space Agency. Colorado State University provides processing and dissemination of scientific data. BAE Systems of Broomfield, Colorado, designed and built the spacecraft. The US Space Force and the US Department of Energy provided funding. American and international universities and research centers support the mission’s scientific team. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, operates JPL for NASA.
CALIPSO, a joint mission between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), completed its mission in August 2023.
Source: Port Altele
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