CALIPSO

CALIPSO
Mission type	Earth observation
Operator	NASA / CNES
COSPAR ID	2006-016A
SATCAT no.	29108
Website	www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov
Mission duration	17 years
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass	587 kilograms (1,294 lb)
Dimensions	1.49 m × 1.84 m × 2.31 m (4.9 ft × 6.0 ft × 7.6 ft)
Power	562 W
Start of mission
Launch date	April 28, 2006, 10:02:16 (2006-04-28UTC10:02:16Z) UTC
Rocket	Delta 7420-10C D314
Launch site	Vandenberg AFB SLC-2W
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Sun-synchronous
Semi-major axis	7,080.7 kilometres (4,399.7 mi)
Eccentricity	0.0001111
Perigee altitude	701 kilometers (436 mi)
Apogee altitude	703 kilometers (437 mi)
Inclination	98.2176 degrees
Period	98.50 minutes
RAAN	285.6451 degrees
Argument of perigee	80.3481 degrees
Mean anomaly	279.7840 degrees
Mean motion	14.57093780
Revolution no.	40530

CALIPSO was a joint NASA (USA) and CNES (France) environmental satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, which was launched atop a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. Its name stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. CALIPSO launched alongside CloudSat.

Passive and active remote sensing instruments on board the CALIPSO satellite monitored aerosols and clouds 24 hours a day. CALIPSO was part of the "C-Train" alongside CloudSat, orbiting on a similar track to the "A-Train." The mission ended on August 1, 2023 after over 17 years. Final passivation occurred on December 11, 2023.^[1]

Mission

Three instruments:

• Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) - a lidar that provided high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds.
• Wide Field Camera (WFC) - a modified version of the commercial off-the-shelf Ball Aerospace CT-633 star tracker camera. It was selected to match band 1 of the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite.
• Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) - used to detect cirrus cloud emissivity and particle size. The CALIOP laser beam is aligned with the center of the IIR image to optimize joint CALIOP/IIR observations.

In February 2009, CALIPSO switched over to the redundant laser as scheduled. The primary laser achieved its mission goal of three years of successful operation, and the redundant laser has been performing beyond expectations.

The CALIPSO mission was granted extended mission status in June 2009. CALIPSO moved to the C-Train in 2020. The mission ended on August 1, 2023 due to lack of propellant.^[2]