CloudSat made an eye overpass of a weakening tropical storm Nangka in the West Pacific on June 25, 2009. TS Nangka encountered an area of high wind shear to the north of the storm as depicted by the lack of clouds and precipitation in the right hand side of the CloudSat overpass. They eye of the storm is denoted by the faint dark blue circle in the AMSR-E image (left image).

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CloudSat made an overpass of Typhoon Jade just as the storm was making landfall in Madagascar on April 5, 2009. CloudSat overpassed the western eyewall edge of the storm, winds at this time were 65 knots (33 m/s) making it a minimal category 1 typhoon. Deep convection and heavy precipitation is evident from the red and orange patches throughout the storm overpass as well as the cirrus anvil blanketing the top of the storm.

CloudSat profiled a developing tropical cyclone Izilda located in between Africa and Madagascar on March 23rd, 2009. In this overpass, Izilda was in the process of transitioning from a tropical depression to a tropical storm with winds of 30 knots. CloudSat passed through the edges of two convection cores of the storm, the intense developing convection is evident from the orange and red reflectivities in the center of the core convection. Izilda strengthened to max winds of 60 knots in less than 48 hours after this overpass, just shy of becoming a category 1 tropical cyclone.

CloudSat completed two overpasses of a strong storm system moving across the central US on March 23rd and 24th, 2009. The March 23 overpass intersects heavy snowfall occurring over parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Some areas of Wyoming and western South Dakota recorded snowfall amounts in excess of 25" from this event. During the March 24th overpass, CloudSat intersects an area of dissipating severe weather over parts of Missouri and Iowa. Earlier in the evening squall lines developed ahead of the storm system as the upper level low tracked over the Dakotas. The system also has the appearance of the classic comma shape observed with mid-latitude systems as they move across the US.

CloudSat made an overpass through the left outer wall region of a weakening Tropical Cyclone Ilsa with winds of 98 mph (85 knots). At the height of the storms intensity on March 19th, 2009, Ilsa contained winds of 110 mph (96 knots), strengthing into a Category 4 cyclone off the western coast of Australia. As the storm moved further west of Australia, it weakened as it encountered mid-level dry air and cooler SST's. The overpass example here shows the dry air being entrained into the southern edge of the storm (causing convection to weaken) while the northern portion of the storm contains more convective areas.

CloudSat made a near eye overpass of Tropical Cyclone Billy on December 25th, 2008 as the storm moved off the coast of Western Australia. The storm contained winds of 60 mph (100 km/hr) at the time of this overpass. Billy intensified as the storm moved off the Australian coast into warmer waters but later weakened as the storm moved into cooler waters and stronger wind shear.

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CloudSat Team visits Cameroon - Video

Peter Falcon, a JPL member of the CloudSat Educational Outreach Team, recently made an outreach visit to two CloudSat Education Network (CEN) schools located in Cameroon. While in Cameroon, his interactions with the students and teachers was videotaped - you can see the video by clicking on the image above (131MB, QuickTime .mov format.)

Graeme Stephens, a University Distinguished Professor and director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University, has been awarded the top honor from NASA for his exceptional scientific leadership of NASA's CloudSat mission launched in 2006. Earlier this fall, the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences presented Stephens with the International Radiation Commission Gold Medal - an honor it only presents once every four years - during the Radiation Symposium in Iguacu, Brazil. The Gold Medal honors a scientist who has made contributions of lasting significance to the field of radiation research.

CloudSat is an experimental satellite that uses radar to observe clouds and precipitation from space. CloudSat orbits in formation as part of the A-Train constellation of satellites (Aqua, CloudSat, CALIPSO, PARASOL, and Aura).

Orbital elements (two-line elements or TLEs) for CloudSat are available here (CloudSat DPC). CloudSat ground tracks may be predicted using tools located on this NASA LaRC page. Orbital elements at the LaRC page are updated regularly, but use the DPC link for the very latest TLEs.

For an overview document (PDF) of science and research themes, click here. The BAMS 2002 article (PDF) describing the CloudSat mission is available here.