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The future of CALIPSO
CALIPSO is scheduled to fly in formation with four other satellites
that will collect a wide variety of coincident measurements. Each
satellite in the formation offers unique information on clouds and
aerosols. Combining their data will provide greater insight than could
be gained from a single satellite. The Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua
satellite, which is focused on understanding the Earth's water or
hydrological cycle, will collect data on the geographical distribution
of clouds and aerosols, atmospheric temperature, moisture content and
the radiation balance at the top of the atmosphere. CloudSat, a sister
ESSP satellite experiment, will use a radar to provide vertical
profiles of thick clouds that lidar cannot penetrate. The EOS Aura
satellite will monitor atmospheric chemistry and dynamics and will
provide information on the geographic distribution of absorbing
aerosols. Finally, the PARASOL (Polarization and Anisotropy of
Reflectances for Atmospheric Science coupled with Observations from a
Lidar) satellite, being developed by CNES, will provide unique
information on aerosols and clouds using a multi-channel, wide
field-of-view, polarization-sensitive camera.

CALIPSO will fly in formation with the Aura, PARASOL, CloudSat, and Aqua satellites. View an animation (4.6MB .mpg) of the constellation. (Animation courtesy of Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory).
Upon successful completion of the CALIPSO mission, the collected
data will allow scientists to better understand aerosols and clouds
and, ultimately, improve climate models. CALIPSO observations will
improve global estimates of how aerosols affect the Earth's radiation
budget and of the flow of heat between the Earth's surface and the top
of the atmosphere. Using CALIPSO, scientists will have a new way to
determine how the climate, aerosols and clouds interact.
next: Introduction
back:A curtain of the atmosphere |
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CALIPSO
Introduction
The importance of clouds and climate change
A curtain of the atmosphere
The future of CALIPSO
Related Data
Cloud Forcing
Aerosol Index
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