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| Keywords: CloudSat-CALIPSO Launch Successfully, Image of the Day DVIDS749611.jpg en In the wee hours of the morning on April 28 2006 a bright pulse of light pierced the foggy darkness at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California A Boeing Delta II rocket carrying NASA's two new Earth-observation satellites blasted off at 3 02 a m Pacific Daylight Time from Space Launch Complex 2 billowing clouds of exhaust This image shows the rocket at lift off The two satellites are contained in the white nose of the rocket which is on the left The launch tower support structure is on the right After 62 minutes the CALIPSO satellite separated from the rocket followed by the CloudSat satellite 35 minutes later Over the next six weeks scientists will conduct system and instrument checks and then they will insert the satellites into their final orbits in which they will fly roughly 15 seconds apart at an altitude of about 705 kilometers 438 miles above the Earth Both spacecraft carry active remote sensors sensors that don't simply observe light and energy but actively probe the atmosphere by sending out pulses of light or radio waves and then measuring how much of the signal is scattered back by clouds or particles aerosols in the atmosphere Active sensors can penetrate into different layers of the atmosphere or clouds to get a picture of what is going on throughout the entire vertical column of the atmosphere CloudSat carries a cloud-profiling radar while CALIPSO short for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations has a lidar which is similar to a radar but uses laser light pulses instead of radio waves CloudSat can detect clouds and distinguish between different sizes and types of cloud particles and precipitation CALIPSO can detect aerosol particles and distinguish between aerosol and cloud particles Together these two missions will help scientists answer questions about how clouds and aerosols influence Earth's energy balance water cycle air quality and climate For more information on CloudSat and CALIPSO including links to their Mission News Webpages please see our previous day's Image of the Day earthobservatory nasa gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images php3 img_id 17258 CloudSat/CALIPSO Mission Set to Launch NASA Identifier cloudsat_calipso_2006118 2011-07-06 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/749611 749611 2012-10-19 14 58 WASHINGTON DC US PD-USGov Vandenberg Air Force Base Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ | ||||
