CloudSat

Mission Profile

CloudSat is a NASA Earth science satellite launched on 28 April 2006 aboard a Delta II as part of the A-Train constellation, carrying the first space-based millimeter-wavelength cloud profiling radar to measure the vertical distribution of cloud water and ice content globally. Orbiting 15 km behind Aqua, CloudSat's 94 GHz radar penetrates cloud layers to measure their vertical structure at 500 meter vertical resolution, producing detailed profiles of precipitation, cloud microphysical properties, and cloud-base and cloud-top heights. CloudSat data dramatically improved global cloud coverage models used in climate and weather prediction, and the radar detected light precipitation including snowfall over many regions previously unobserved from space. After a battery failure in 2011 CloudSat operated in daylight-only mode, and the mission was retired in November 2023 after 17 years.