CALIPSO Mission:
NASA has announced the conclusion of its CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) mission, which analysed climate, weather, and air quality for 17 years.
- CALIPSO, launched jointly by NASA and France’s CNES, used LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to record over 10 billion measurements and generate thousands of scientific reports.
- The mission involved two satellites, CALIPSO and CloudSat, which were launched in 2003 and orbited the Earth in a Sun-synchronous orbit.
- They measured cloud altitudes and various atmospheric particles’ properties, such as dust, sea salt, ash, and soot.
- These observations contributed to sophisticated models to understand complex atmospheric processes, including cloud formation, atmospheric convection, precipitation, and particle transport.
