On April 28, 2006, the CALIPSO satellite and the US CloudSat cloud-observing and climate-monitoring satellite were launched by a Delta 2 expendable rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
CALIPSO is the product of a close Franco-American partnership between the French space agency CNES, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Alcatel Alenia Space, responsible for the satellite platform and the spacecraft-payload integration.
"Our teams worked together on this program for over three years," says Michel Jourdan, CALIPSO program manager. "Our American colleagues stayed in Cannes throughout the integration phase. Teamwork, dedication and expertise were our common drivers during this project. Many thanks to the team!"
The partnership between CNES and NASA began with the development of a low orbit multi-mission platform called Proteus - a reconfigurable platform for observation, telecom and science missions - and the launch of Jason-1 in December 2001. CALIPSO is the second low-orbit mini-satellite developed using the Proteus platform.
The CALIPSO satellite is part of the French-American Aqua satellite constellation, which also comprises:
- NASA's Aqua and Aura satellites,
- CNES' PARASOL satellite,
- CALIPSO,
- CloudSat.
The constellation is also known as the "A-Train," in reference to the "afternoon train." The six satellites will cross the equator daily one at a time, a few minutes apart, at around 1:30pm local time.
Focus on CALIPSO
Once stationed in near-sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km, CALIPSO's mission will be to:
- locate clouds and aerosols,
- determine their altitude and optical properties,
- measure their radioactive impacts on Earth's climate.
The international scientific community believes a better understanding of clouds and atmospheric aerosols will allow us to model the Earth's climate change more accurately.
During its 3-year lifecycle, CALIPSO will provide invaluable information on the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. These data will be measured by the first space borne backscatter laser radar, or Light Detection and Ranging (LIDR).