NASA has announced the conclusion of its CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) mission, which analysed climate, weather, and air quality for 17 years.
CALIPSO, launched jointly by NASA and France’s CNES, used LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to record over 10 billion measurements and generate thousands of scientific reports.
The ”Mission involved two satellites, CALIPSO and CloudSat, which were launched in 2003 and orbited the Earth in a Sun-synchronous orbit.
They measured cloud altitudes and various atmospheric particles’ properties, such as dust, sea salt, ash, and soot.
These observations contributed to sophisticated models to understand complex atmospheric processes, including cloud formation, atmospheric convection, precipitation, and particle transport.
