THE CLOUDSAT MISSION AND THE A-TRAIN
| Autor: | Zhien Wang, Angela Benedetti, Richard T. Austin, Kenneth Sassen, Deborah G. Vane, Ronald J. Boain, Gerald G. Mace, Ewan O'Connor, Anthony J. Illingworth, Graeme L. Stephens, Stephen L. Durden, Steven D. Miller, William B. Rossow, Cristian Mitrescu |
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| Rok vydání: | 2002 |
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| Zdroj: | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 83:1771-1790 |
| ISSN: | 1520-0477 0003-0007 |
| DOI: | 10.1175/bams-83-12-1771 |
| Popis: | CloudSat is a satellite experiment designed to measure the vertical structure of clouds from space. The expected launch of CloudSat is planned for 2004, and once launched, CloudSat will orbit in formation as part of a constellation of satellites (the A-Train) that includes NASA's Aqua and Aura satellites, a NASA–CNES lidar satellite (CALIPSO), and a CNES satellite carrying a polarimeter (PARASOL). A unique feature that CloudSat brings to this constellation is the ability to fly a precise orbit enabling the fields of view of the CloudSat radar to be overlapped with the CALIPSO lidar footprint and the other measurements of the constellation. The precision and near simultaneity of this overlap creates a unique multisatellite observing system for studying the atmospheric processes essential to the hydrological cycle. The vertical profiles of cloud properties provided by CloudSat on the global scale fill a critical gap in the investigation of feedback mechanisms linking clouds to climate. Measuring these profi... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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