Researchers used the space-based CALIPSO lidar to measure the worlds biggest animal migration, which happens when small sea animals swim up from the depths during the night to feed on phytoplankton, then back down again just before daybreak. Credit: NASA/ Timothy Marvel
CALIPSO, a joint NASA-CNES lidar satellite, ended its 17-year objective in 2023. Together with CloudSat, it provided essential climatic insights, influencing global understanding of events like the 2020 Volcanic eruptions and australian wildfires. The project fostered an international scientific neighborhood.
CALIPSO, a lidar satellite that advanced the worlds understanding of weather condition, environment, and air quality, ended its clinical mission on August 1, 2023.
CALIPSOs Achievements
Across 17 years of operation, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation recorded more than 10 billion lidar measurements and informed thousands of clinical reports. CALIPSO was launched jointly by NASA and Frances Centre National dEtudes Spatiales/CNES and in tandem with the cloud-profiling radar system on the CloudSat satellite.
CALIPSO, a joint NASA-CNES lidar satellite, ended its 17-year objective in 2023. Lidar and radar are thought about “active” sensing units since they direct beams of energy at the Earth– laser light in the case of CALIPSO and radio waves in the case of CloudSat– and then determine how the beams reflect off the clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. The overlaid vertical cross areas show CALIPSO lidar observations for these same days. Winker pointed to the worldwide neighborhood of CALIPSO information users as one of the satellites traditions. NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided the aerosol-measuring lidar carried by CALIPSO.
” We needed to construct, for the very first time, an advanced lidar efficient in operating in area,” said Chip Trepte, NASAs task researcher for CALIPSO. “Then we planned to fly that satellite in close development to match the CALIPSO lidar profile measurements with the radar profile measurements from CloudSat.”
NASA Earth Science Division Director Karen St. Germain delivered this message celebrating the CALIPSO science team and other members of the science community. Credit: NASA
Sensing unit Technology
Lidar and radar are considered “active” sensors due to the fact that they direct beams of energy at the Earth– laser light when it comes to CALIPSO and radio waves when it comes to CloudSat– and then measure how the beams reflect off the clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. Other orbiting science instruments utilize “passive” sensing units that measure shown sunlight or radiation released from the Earth or clouds. The combined information from CALIPSO and CloudSat provided brand-new insights into cloud structures and aerosol layers.
Satellites Orbit & & Observations
Launched together on April 28, 2006, the 2 satellites circled around the world in Sun-synchronous orbits from the North to the South poles, crossing the equator in the early afternoon every day. They penetrated the vertical structure of the atmosphere, determining the altitude of clouds and layers of air-borne particles such as dust, sea salt, ash, and soot.
The distinct and almost synchronised observations enabled scientists to construct a more advanced understanding of several atmospheric processes consisting of cloud formation, climatic convection, rainfall, and particle transportation.
The animation reveals RGB color images from NASAs Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASAs Aqua satellite from December 31, 2019, through January 5, 2020. A plume of brown smoke extends from the southeastern coast of Australia, over the Tasman Sea and beyond into the Pacific Ocean. The overlaid vertical sample show CALIPSO lidar observations for these same days. The brilliant colors indicate the existence of small particles (aerosols) and the white color suggests clouds. Noticeable in each of the samples near 40 degrees south is a thick layer of smoke from the fires at altitudes above 9 miles (14.5 km). The dark shading below these layers is due to the absence of lidar signals listed below the opaque smoke layers. These layers include really little particles and have optical properties similar to smoke. Credit: NASA Langley/Roman Kowch Noteworthy Observations
For instance, throughout Australias massive 2020 wildfires, CALIPSO observed smoke skyrocketing in between 9 and 12 miles above Earths surface. It was high enough to reach the stratosphere, one of the greatest plumes ever tape-recorded.
Ashes is a hazard to airplane. The fine, glassy particles can impact exposure and cause engines to stall. “One of CALIPSOs crucial applications was identifying the presence and measuring the altitude of ash plumes from volcanic eruptions,” Winker said. “These observations were utilized by Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers around the world to direct and alert business pilots to avoid flying into the plumes.” When a volcano appeared in Iceland in 2010, volcanic ash wandered south over Europe triggering several countries to ground all flights. Observations from CALIPSO allowed scientists to provide cautions to pilots.
Legacy & & Partnerships Winker pointed to the worldwide neighborhood of CALIPSO data users as one of the satellites traditions. “Hundreds of students all over the world discovered how to utilize CALIPSO lidar information in their graduate research, forming an international community that is now prepared to utilize data from the next satellite lidar.”” Partnerships enable one or more teams to accomplish together what is not possible alone,” Trepte added. “For CALIPSO, a partnership with CNES was ideal,” he said. “They had a long history with spacecraft and with lidar science, and we were able to build and operate a remarkable objective that advanced our understanding of air, weather, and climate quality.” NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, supplied the aerosol-measuring lidar brought by CALIPSO. The Centre National dEtudes Spatiales, or CNES, in Toulouse, France, supplied the CALIPSO spacecraft. The Canadian Space Agency, or CSA, in Montreal, Canada and the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, developed the radar on CloudSat. The labs of Ball Aerospace Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, built the CloudSat spacecraft and payload. Fibertek developed the CALIPSO laser.
” I have a feeling of achievement that the objective we developed 25 years ago operated successfully over a long period of time,” Winker said.