STAR CloudSat Satellite Data https://data.eol.ucar.edu/dataset/251.011 Summary CloudSat was selected as a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder satellite mission in 1999 to provide observations necessary to advance our understanding of cloud abundance, distribution, structure, and radiative properties. Since 2006, CloudSat has flown the first satellite-based millimeter-wavelength cloud radar—a radar that is more than 1000 times more sensitive than existing weather radars. Unlike ground-based weather radars that use centimeter wavelengths to detect raindrop-sized particles, CloudSat's radar allows us to detect the much smaller particles of liquid water and ice that constitute the large cloud masses that make our weather. (excerpt taken from the CloudSat home page: http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/overview and http://www.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataHome.php ) The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) is a 94-GHz nadir-looking radar which measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar. The CPR was developed jointly by NASA/JPL and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The overall design of the CPR is simple, well understood, and has strong heritage from many cloud radars already in operation in ground-based and airborne applications. The design of the CPR is driven by the science objectives. The original requirements on CPR were: sensitivity defined by a minimum detectable reflectivity factor of -30 dBZ, along-track sampling of 2 km, a dynamic range of 70 dB, 500 m vertical resolution and calibration accuracy of 1.5 dB. The minimum detectable reflectivity factor requirement was reduced to -26 dBZ when the mission was changed to put CloudSat into a higher orbit for formation flying. Details on the data format can be found at: http://www.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/data-products Identifiers * Local archive identifier: 251.011 * doi:10.26023/H0E2-XRA8-330F https://doi.org/10.26023/H0E2-XRA8-330F Versions 1.0 Citation Hanesiak, J., et al. 2020. STAR CloudSat Satellite Data. Version 1.0. UCAR/NCAR - Earth Observing Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.26023/H0E2-XRA8-330F Accessed 29 Mar 2024. Additional citation styles can be generated by entering the DOI at CrossCite (https://citation.crosscite.org/). Acknowledgement In addition to the citation reference and any other acknowledgements, please acknowledge NCAR/EOL in your publications with text such as: Data provided by NCAR/EOL under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. https://data.eol.ucar.edu/ Related projects * STAR: Storm Studies in the Arctic https://data.eol.ucar.edu/project/STAR Additional information * Frequency: continuous * Language: English Platforms * CLOUDSAT Instruments * CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar - CloudSat-CPR GCMD Science Keywords * EARTH SCIENCE > SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING > RADAR > RADAR REFLECTIVITY Documentation * Metadata_CloudSat.pdf [73 KiB] https://data.eol.ucar.edu/file/download/54A5C653E9852/Metadata_CloudSat.pdf * STAR_Data_Report_Final2011.pdf [12 MiB] https://data.eol.ucar.edu/file/download/54A5C654FC46A/STAR_Data_Report_Final2011.pdf Related links * homepage: STAR Project Homepage https://www.eol.ucar.edu/field_projects/star Temporal coverage * Begin datetime: 2007-10-01 00:00:00 * End datetime: 2007-12-01 00:00:00 Spatial coverage * Maximum (North) Latitude: 68.50 * Minimum (South) Latitude: 59.00 * Minimum (West) Longitude: -79.00 * Maximum (East) Longitude: -59.50 Primary contact information * pointOfContact: EOL Data Support https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/1 Additional contact information * author: John Hanesiak https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/2026 * author: Ron Stewart https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/2563 * author: Kent Moore https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/1287 * author: Peter Taylor https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/2564 * author: Walter Strapp https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/1716 * author: Mengistu Wolde https://data.eol.ucar.edu/contact/show/2495 Alternate metadata formats * DataCite: https://data.eol.ucar.edu/dataset/251.011?format=datacite * ISO/TC 211: https://data.eol.ucar.edu/dataset/251.011?format=isotc211