CALIPSO Mission : NASA
The CALIPSO mission that analysed climate, weather, and air quality ended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced recently.
- CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) is a mission dedicated to studying how clouds and aerosols impact the Earth’s climate.
- It is a joint project between NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), the French space agency.
- Launched in 2006, CALIPSO is a satellite-based observatory.
- Scientists are using data from CALIPSO to construct 3D models of the atmosphere that improve our ability to predict future climate change.
- CALIPSO has been part of a constellation of spacecraft called the “A-Train,” including Aqua, Aura, and PARASOL spacecraft, dedicated to studying the Earth’s weather and environment.
- It carries CALIOP, a two-wavelength, polarization-sensitive lidar, along with two passive sensors operating in the visible and thermal infrared spectral regions.
- The lidar emitted pulses of laser light and measured the amount of light that was scattered back by clouds and aerosols. This information was used to create vertical profiles of cloud and aerosol properties, such as their height, thickness, and optical depth.
- CALIOP is the first lidar to provide long-term atmospheric measurements from Earth’s orbit.
