Welcome to the CloudSat Data Processing Center

CloudSat is a satellite mission designed to measure the vertical structure of clouds from space. The radar data produces detailed images of cloud structures which will contribute to a better understanding of clouds and climate. Please peruse this website to find out more about the CloudSat mission and the Data Processing Center.

Visit the main CloudSat project website at Colorado State University.

Spacecraft and Data Status Update

After a battery anomaly on 17 April 2011, the CloudSat spacecraft ceased collecting data and lost formation with the A-Train. Daylight-only data collection resumed on 27 October 2011. CloudSat returned to the A-Train on 15 May 2012, and a maneuver to achieve footprint overlap with CALIPSO was performed on 18 July 2012.

For data collected while CloudSat was out of formation (E05), there isn't corresponding MODIS and CALIPSO data. MODIS-AUX, 2B-TAU and 2B-CWC-RVOD require MODIS data and the LIDAR products require CALIPSO data, so these products will not be produced for this period. The 1B-CPR, ECMWF-AUX, 2B-GEOPROF, and 2B-CLDCLASS products have been released for E05 and E06 (the current period since CloudSat returned to the A-Train). MODIS-AUX has been released for E06.

CloudSat Level 3 Product Available

The level 3 product is derived from 2B-GEOPROF and contains the monthly-mean joint histograms of radar reflectivity and height and radar-determined total cloud fraction. The histograms and documentation are available at the Level 3 website. Points of contact are Yuying Zhang and Roger Marchand.