CALIPSO

CALIPSO is a joint NASA (USA) and CNES (France) environmental satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, which was launched atop a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. Its name stands for "Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations." It will actively (by laser) measure aerosols and clouds 24 hours a day. CALIPSO will fly in formation in the "A Train" with several other satellites (Aqua, Aura, CloudSat and the French PARASOL).

Instruments

* Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) - a lidar that provides high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds.
* Wide Field Camera (WFC) - a modified version of the commercial off-the-shelf Ball Aerosopace CT-633 star tracker camera. It was selected to match band 1 of the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite.
* Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) - used to detect cirrus cloud emissivity and particle size. The CALIOP is aligned with the center of the IIR image to optimize joint CALIOP/IIR observations. Over one billions laser shots and still going

ee also

*Earth Observing System
* A-train (satellite)
*Iris Hypothesis

*List of spaceflights (2006)

External links

* [http://calipsooutreach.hamptonu.edu/ CALIPSO Outreach]
* [http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/TerraAqua/CALIPSOstory.html CALIPSO and the A Train]
* [http://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/ The CALIPSO page at NASA]
* [http://smsc.cnes.fr/CALIPSO/ The CALIPSO page at French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES)]
* [http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=CALIPSO CALIPSO Mission Profile] by [http://solarsystem.nasa.gov NASA's Solar System Exploration]
* [http://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/stories/NW_062306ENBglobalwarmingKC.b664c676.html CALIPSO results in five to ten years]