News

The End of Radar Operations

2023 Dec 20 at 2053 UTC

CloudSat radar operations ceased as planned on December 20, 2023 at 11:10 UTC, bringing to an end a rich 17 year and 8 month history of science observations. The spacecraft will now conduct a sequence of orbit lowers leading up to its passivation in April 2024.

The Data Processing Center and Science Team are hard at work implementing the final reprocessing of the CloudSat data products. These R06 products will be released to the science community gradually throughout 2024 and early 2025.

For more information about the mission and its decommissioning, please see this Colorado State University press release.

2019-2020 R05 Data Available

2023 Sep 25 at 1818 UTC

2019-2020 data for the following products are now available for data ordering and download via SFTP.

Please note that these R05 (pre-ACT-TWO) datasets contain known geolocation errors, documented here, that will be addressed in the R06 reprocessing.

  • 1B-CPR.P_R05
  • ECMWF-AUX.P_R05
  • ECMWF-AUX.P1_R05
  • 2B-GEOPROF.P1_R05
  • CRYOSPHERE_AUX.P_R05
  • 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN.P1_R05
  • 2B-CLDCLASS.P1_R05
  • 2C-RAIN-PROFILE.P1_R05
  • 2C-SNOW-PROFILE.P1_R05
  • 2B-CWC-RO.P1_R05
  • 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR.P2_R05
  • 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR.P1_R05
  • 2C-ICE.P1_R05

New Version of 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR Available

2023 Aug 16 at 1916 UTC

2B-FLXHR-LIDAR has been reprocessed using ECMWF-AUX version P1_R05 as input to address issues in temperature and humidity interpolation and to fix various bugs that produced data flagged as missing. 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR version P2_R05 is now available for data ordering and download via SFTP. See the 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product page for more information.

Data Ordering Restored

2023 Apr 26 at 2034 UTC

Data ordering via the web interface and access via SFTP is once again operational. Please contact cloudsat@colostate.edu if you encouter any issues.

New Data Product: AMSR2-AUX

2022 Nov 14 at 2259 UTC

Subset ancillary AMSR2 surface precipitation (AU_Rain) and ocean (AU_Ocean) products data collocated with each CloudSat cloud profiling radar (CPR) footprint are now available for data ordering and download via SFTP. See the AMSR2-AUX product page for more information.

New Version of ECMWF-AUX Available

2022 Oct 10 at 2007 UTC

ECMWF-AUX has been reprocessed to address a minor pressure interpolation issue. Version P1_R05 is now available for data ordering and download via SFTP. This version is not yet used in the generation of downstream products. See the ECWMF-AUX product page for more information.

New Community Product: Warm Rain Rate Estimates from AMSR 89 GHz and Cloudsat

2022 Oct 7 at 1550 UTC

Warm rain rates inferred from AMSR/E & AMSR/2 89 GHz passive microwave brightness temperatures trained using CloudSat rain rate observations are now available for download via SFTP in the community-products directory under warm-rain-rates-amsr. See the Warm Rain Rate Estimates from AMSR 89 GHz and Cloudsat page for more information. This product is provided by Ryan Eastman, Matthew Lebsock, and Robert Wood.

Direct data access has changed from FTP to SFTP

2022 Jun 8 at 1425 UTC

The FTP mechanism for direct download of CloudSat data products has been changed to SFTP. All users can now follow the instructions on the Orders -> SFTP Access page to set up their account for the new protocol. 

CloudSat Resumes Science Operations

2022 Feb 1 at 2209 UTC

The CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar returned to daytime-only operations on 16 December, 2021. 

After a series of innovative changes to the command loads on the spacecraft,  Ball Aerospace engineers were able to use the remaining momentum wheels and torque-rods to stabilize the craft and allow the re-activation of the CPR instrument.  After the long period of dormancy, the radar is performing nominally, and the mission will now operate in the same day-time-only mode that was in place prior to the momentum wheel failure on August 27th of 2020.  

The new stabilization procedure is producing a harmonic offset in the “roll” and “pitch” direction of the spacecraft axis, resulting in a radar bore-sight pointing offset that varies from approximately 2-6 degrees off-nadir.  Engineering data from the spacecraft has been successfully applied to the science data to correct the geolocation of each CPR profile. 

After review by the CloudSat Science Team, this unique data set will be processed and released, along with roll and pitch offset parameters. 

The real-time “QuickLook” images and granule specifications will continue to be available on this website.

The DPC website has been updated

2021 Sep 29 at 2202 UTC

We've completely revamped our website and are continuing to work on our data distribution system. Here are some things to keep in mind during this transition:

  1. If you had an account on the old site you'll be prompted to update your password when you log in here the first time. You may continue to use your old credentials if you like. For security reasons we are not able to transfer passwords from the old website to the new one.
  2. While we work on the new direct file access mechanism you will still be able to access the old FTP server at ftp.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu using your old website credentials. The credential databases are not yet synchronized.
  3. If you register a new account on this website and need access to the direct access FTP server, please request access on the Contact Form.

Thank you for your patience as we get the bugs ironed out. If you notice any or have any feedback please let us know via the Contact Form.

The CloudSat DPC Team

Products Reprocessed For Data Dates Between 19 May 2018 and 11 July 2019

2020 Dec 9 at 2201 UTC

A spacecraft timing issue was discovered that resulted in an along-track offset between the radar surface return and the calculated DEM elevation. The magnitude of the error ranges from 2-5 profiles and primarily affects data analysis that is concerned with the lowest range bins and the geolocation matchup for radar-lidar products. The timing issue has been fixed and the following data products have been reprocessed between the data dates of 19 May 2018 and 11 July 2019:

  • 1B-CPR.P_R05
  • ECMWF-AUX.P_R05
  • 2B-GEOPROF.P1_R05
  • CRYOSPHERE-AUX.P_R05
  • 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN.P1_R05
  • 2B-CLDCLASS.P1_R05
  • 2C-RAIN-PROFILE.P1_R05
  • 2C-SNOW-PROFILE.P1_R05
  • 2B-CWC-RO.P1_R05
  • LIDAR-VFM-AUX.P1_R05
  • 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR.P2_R05

The new files have an updated "fix" number in the file names: F03. For example:

2019001005530_67526_CS_1B-CPR_GRANULE_P_R05_E08_F03.hdf

Reaction Wheel Anomaly - No New Data Available

2020 Aug 27 at 2200 UTC

CloudSat suffered a failure of one of its three remaining reaction wheels on August 27th, 2020 which automatically put the spacecraft into standby mode. Radar data collection has ceased until the team determines if operations can continue with two wheels.

CloudSat exits the A-Train

2018 Feb 22 at 2159 UTC

After almost 12 years of flying in formation with its A-Train partners, CloudSat safely exited the constellation on February 22nd, 2018 to begin a solo career. The current status of the reaction wheels is being analyzed by JPL and Ball Aerospace and a plan to return to Daylight-Only Operations (DO-Op) is being formulated.

CloudSat momentum wheel anomaly and status

2018 Jan 24 at 2159 UTC

CloudSat is currently in standby mode due to a spacecraft momentum wheel anomaly. Due to safety concerns, the CloudSat spacecraft will be executing a maneuver to lower it’s orbit and leave the A-Train. If that maneuver is successful, CloudSat should return to daytime-only operation sometime in the mid-February timeframe. Co-located CloudSat and CALIPSO data products will only be available after the orbit change, and co-located MODIS-AUX products will only be available during the period where CloudSat flies under the MODIS data swath. ECMWF-AUX products will continue to be produced along with radar-only standard CloudSat products.

CloudSat Reaction Wheel Anomaly

2017 Jul 10 at 2158 UTC

The CloudSat spacecraft entered standby mode on June 4th, 2017 after experiencing a problem with one of its four reaction wheels. Tests are underway to determine how to solve the problem and resume operations.