CloudSat

CloudSat

Type:	Earth observation satellite
Country:	United States United States
Operator:	NASA
COSPAR-ID :	2006-016A
Mission dates
Dimensions:	848 kg
Begin:	April 28, 2006, 10:02 UTC
Starting place:	Vandenberg Air Force Base , SLC-2W
Launcher:	Delta 7420-XC
Status:	active
Orbit data
Rotation time :	98.8 min
Orbit inclination :	98.2 °
Apogee height :	710 km
Perigee height :	709 km

Launch of the Delta II rocket with CloudSat and CALIPSO .

Artist's impression of CloudSat

CloudSat is an Earth observation satellite of NASA . It is used to research the effects of clouds and aerosols on the weather and air quality on earth. The satellite is part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) research program, which includes a number of environmental satellites.

mission

CloudSat works in a 700 km high, sun-synchronous orbit and flies in formation with the CALIPSO satellite and three other environmental satellites ( Aura , Aqua and PARASOL ). These five satellites together form the A-Train . Since CALIPSO and CloudSat were the last two satellites to be launched, they had to be included in the formation. Therefore, the start window was only open for one second on a given day. Delays were therefore intolerable.

CloudSat would have after the start had already been postponed several times, on 21 April 2006 along with CALIPSO aboard a Delta II - carrier rocket will be launched. Due to technical problems with communication between CALIPSO and the ground station in France, the countdown was stopped less than a minute before the ignition. Further start attempts had to be canceled due to the weather or other technical problems.

On April 28, 2006 at 12:02 CEST , the satellites were finally launched on the seventh attempt at launch. 97 minutes later, CloudSat was disconnected and placed in orbit.

At the beginning of June 2006, NASA published the first test images. Although they were still considered test images, these were already much better than all previous profile images of clouds.

On July 4, 2007, CloudSat had to make an orbit correction to avoid the Iranian satellite Sinah-1 . On July 7th, the original formation was restored with another orbit correction.

On April 17, 2011, a battery problem occurred, so that CloudSat could no longer send data and could only be controlled in sunlight. In order not to obstruct the Aqua satellite , CloudSat had to pull out of the A train on October 7th. On November 3rd, CloudSat was able to be put into Daylight-Only-Operations-State (DO-Op), in which it is fully functional as long as it is in sunlight. On May 15, 2012, CloudSat resumed its position on the A-Train.

The original mission was scheduled for 22 months, although CloudSat had enough fuel on board for over three years. The mission has since been extended several times.

Cloud Profiling Radar

The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) is the only scientific instrument on board CloudSat. The radar operates at a frequency of 94 GHz and measures the energy that is reflected by the clouds as a function of their distance. From this, conclusions can be drawn about the composition of the clouds, specifically about the presence of water and ice within the cloud. The CPR is about 1000 times more sensitive than the radar of a conventional weather satellite and can therefore penetrate and analyze in detail even very thick clouds with heavy rain and snowfall.

Web links

Ball Aerospace - Developer of CloudSat (English)
Colorado State University's CloudSat Homepage
NASA's CloudSat homepage (English)

CloudSat-CALIPSO Launch Press Kit (PDF) NASA (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ESA: CloudSat. Retrieved on April 3, 2017 : "On April 28, 2016, the CloudSat and CALIPSO missions, both members of the" A-Train Constellation ", celebrated their 10th anniversary on orbit. Both spacecraft have long exceeded their prime missions (which were intended to show the value of active remote sensing instruments in space) and are in extended operations. "
↑ path data to Cloudsat. N2YO, April 1, 2017, accessed April 3, 2017 .
↑ ESA: CloudSat. Retrieved April 3, 2017 .
↑ Michael Nayak et al: CloudSat Anomaly Recovery and Operational Lessons Learned. (PDF) June 11, 2012, accessed on September 15, 2014 (English).
^ Colorado State University: CloudSat radar status. April 29, 2014, accessed September 15, 2014 .
↑ NASA: CloudSat-CALIPSO Launch Press Kit. (PDF) April 2006, p. 7 , accessed on September 15, 2014 (English).

[mission-1] ESA: CloudSat. Retrieved on April 3, 2017 : "On April 28, 2016, the CloudSat and CALIPSO missions, both members of the" A-Train Constellation ", celebrated their 10th anniversary on orbit. Both spacecraft have long exceeded their prime missions (which were intended to show the value of active remote sensing instruments in space) and are in extended operations. "

[2] th data to Cloudsat. N2YO, April 1, 2017, accessed April 3, 2017 .

[eop-3] ESA: CloudSat. Retrieved April 3, 2017 .

[4] Michael Nayak et al: CloudSat Anomaly Recovery and Operational Lessons Learned. (PDF) June 11, 2012, accessed on September 15, 2014 (English).

[5] Colorado State University: CloudSat radar status. April 29, 2014, accessed September 15, 2014 .

[6] NASA: CloudSat-CALIPSO Launch Press Kit. (PDF) April 2006, p. 7 , accessed on September 15, 2014 (English).