Early Results on Cloud Profiling Radar Post-launch Calibration and Operations

Author

Im, Eastwood ; Durden, Stephen L. ; Tanelli, Simone ; Pak, Kyung

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA

fYear

2006

fDate

July 31 2006-Aug. 4 2006

Firstpage

93

Lastpage

96

Abstract

The cloud profiling radar (CPR), the primary science instrument of the CloudSat Mission, is a 94-GHz nadir- looking radar that measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar. This instrument will acquire a global time series of vertical cloud structure at 500-m vertical resolution and 1.4-km horizontal resolution. CPR will operate in a short-pulse mode and will yield measurements at a minimum detectable sensitivity of -28 dBZ.

Keywords

artificial satellites; atmospheric measuring apparatus; calibration; clouds; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; CPR operations; CPR post launch calibration; Cloud Profiling Radar; CloudSat Mission; cloud backscattered power; frequency 94 GHz; nadir looking radar; short pulse mode operation; vertical cloud structure global time series; Airborne radar; Calibration; Clouds; Extraterrestrial measurements; Ice; Optical scattering; Radar measurements; Satellites; Spaceborne radar; Water;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2006. IGARSS 2006. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9510-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2006.29

Filename

4241176