CALIPSO Mission

  • 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.