Data Distribution

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During the on-orbit phase of the mission, the DPC will provide CloudSat data products to the CloudSat Science Teams and limited access to the general science community. Access will be via an on-line storage and retrieval system comprised of servers and network mass storage systems. The mission goal is to keep all of the CloudSat Science Data Products on-line for the duration of the 22-month mission.

Data will be made available via an on-line Data Distribution System as soon as the CloudSat PI releases the data to science users.

The DPC will not provide data via media (ie. CD or Tape) unless the cost of the media, operator, and shipping expenses are covered by the requester. Most, if not all, of the data requests should be supported by the electronic transfer of data via the Data Distribution System.

CIRA is required to make all of the CloudSat level 0, 1, and 2 products available to the CloudSat Science Teams within the following timeline requirements:

·	All processed level 1 products will be available within 1 month of receipt of the associated raw CPR data and spacecraft engineering data.

·	All processed level 2 products that depend on only CloudSat data will be available within 2 months of the receipt of the associated level 0 and spacecraft engineering data.

·	All processed level 2 products that depend on both Ancillary and CloudSat data, will be available within 2 months of receipt of the required MODIS ancillary data and associated raw CPR data and spacecraft engineering data.

(A stated goal for the DPC is to provide access to products within minutes to hours after the necessary input data are available.)

1B-CPR-First Look (1B-CPR-FL), the product should be available within several minutes of the time that the CloudSat Science data are available from the RSC - generally within 3 hours of the sample time - depending on the portion of the orbit that is of interest and the downlink schedule for the AFSCN.

1B-CPR will generally be available at approximately 17:00 UTC the day following the Julian day of the orbit. This is driven by the requirement for the ingest of the Definitive Ephemeris from the RSC - which should arrive at approximately 16:00 UTC (valid for the previous Julian day from 00:00-23:59 UTC.

Level 3 products will be available daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly - depending on the product.