The afternoon constellation: a formation of Earth observing systems for the atmosphere and hydrosphere

Author

Schoeberl, Mark R.

Author_Institution

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

354

Abstract

Two of the large EOS observatories, Aqua (formerly EOS-PM) and Aura (formerly EOS-CHEM) will orbit in nearly the same inclination with 1:30 PM ±15 min ascending node equatorial crossing times. Between Aura and Aqua a series of smaller satellites will be stationed: Cloudsat, CALIPSO (formerly PICASSO/CENA), and PARASOL. This constellation of low Earth orbit satellites will provide an unprecedented opportunity to make atmospheric cloud observations. This paper provides details of the science opportunity and describes the sensor types for the afternoon constellation.

Keywords

artificial satellites; atmospheric measuring apparatus; clouds; remote sensing; Aqua; Aura; CALIPSO; Cloudsat; EOS observatories; EOS-CHEM; EOS-PM; PARASOL; PICASSO/CENA; afternoon satellite constellation; atmospheric cloud observations; equatorial crossing times; low Earth orbit satellites; sensor types; Atmosphere; Clouds; Earth Observing System; Geoscience; Laser radar; Low earth orbit satellites; NASA; Observatories; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Space vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2002. IGARSS '02. 2002 IEEE International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7536-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2002.1025038

Filename

1025038