Canadian CALIPSO/CloudSat Validation Project (C3VP)

Clouds play a key role in the Earth's energy balance or "radiation budget," the amount of radiation that enters and leaves the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists know certain clouds reflect some of the sun's energy back into space and cool the atmosphere, while others trap radiation, leading to a warming effect on the climate system. Still, significant questions remain about what drives changes in the overall radiation budget. C3VP will analyze new information on the radiation budget provided by the CALIPSO/CloudSat satellites launched by NASA in April 2006. Ultimately, these data will be fed into computer models to help scientists improve forecasts in the future.

C3VP will also evaluate the quality of the CALIPSO/CloudSat products as they apply to Canadian climate, with a focus on stratiform cold-season cloud systems. Scientists will take detailed field measurements in south-central Ontario, involving ground-based instruments and the Canadian National Research Council's Convair-580 research aircraft, equipped with a suite of in-situ and remote-sensing instruments to fly missions along CloudSat's ground track. 

CALIPSO and CloudSat fly in formation with three other satellites to provide a global survey of cloud vertical profiles and physical properties including cloud particle size, ice and water content. CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar is more than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar. It can detect clouds and distinguish between cloud particles and precipitation. It also offers new insights into how fresh water is created from water vapor and how much of this water falls to the Earth's surface as rain and snow. The polarization lidar aboard CALIPSO can detect and distinguish between aerosols and cloud particles.

The data gathered during C3VP will help scientists understand how well these satellite instruments are performing and if additional calibrations or corrections are needed. Ultimately, the new information gathered will be fed into mathematical computer models to improve weather and climate predictions.

Contacts:

David Hudak
Meteorological Service of Canada
David.Hudak@ec.gc.ca

Howard Barker
Meteorological Service of Canada
Howard.Barker@ec.gc.ca

Mission Website:

http://c3vp.org/

Science Goals:

• Provide independent verification of CALIPSO/CloudSat products
• Verify the physical basis of the data product algorithms as they apply to cold-season cloud systems
• Contribute to the development of new mid- and high-latitude data products (i.e., snow retrievals)
• Examine the relationships and interactions between cloud microphysical processes and radiative processes
• Study the macroscopic properties of the clouds (type, amount, and thickness) and determine how cloud cover varies as a function of altitude
• Study the vertical distributions of cloud microphysical properties, such as liquid and ice content and particle size to determine how they influence the accuracy of retrievals
• Analyze data retrievals in the perspective of weather systems and large-scale circulations
• Determine the direct effects of aerosols on the radiation budget

Partners:

Scientists with the Meteorological Service of Canada will work closely with researchers from the Canadian Space Agency, NASA, NOAA, and several universities

When:

October 2006 - March 2007

Where:

Research flights and ground-based instruments will be deployed across the Great Lakes region of Canada.

Links:

For more information about this mission:
http://c3vp.org/

For more information about CALIPSO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/calipso/main/index.html

For more information about CloudSat:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cloudsat/main/index.html

For more information about the Canadian National Research Council's Convair-580 research aircraft:
http://iar-ira.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/flight/flight_8a_e.html