CloudSaCloudSat!t!

On 28th April the first spaceborne cloud radar was

launched

It joins Aqua: MODIS, CERES,

AIRS, AMSU radiometers

One orbit: Tuesday last weekStart of orbitEnd of orbit

Greenland ice sheet Antarctic ice sheet

30 km of uncalibrated 94-GHz radar reflectivity factor

Clouds!

June 13June 13thth (Tuesday last week) (Tuesday last week)

• 14.30 UTC June 13th (Tuesday last week)

Melting ice

MODIS RGB composite

CloudSat reflectivity factor

Cirrus

Altocumulus: mixed-phase?

Optically thick ice cloud

13.10 UTC June 18th

Scotland EnglandLakedistrict

Isle of Wight France

MODIS RGB composite

Scotland EnglandLakedistrict

Isle of Wight France

MODIS Infrared window

13.10 UTC June 18th

(Sunday)

Scotland EnglandLakedistrict

Isle of Wight France

Met Office rain radar network

13.10 UTC June 18th

(Sunday)

• CloudSat was 10 km from Chilbolton at 13.07 UTC

Chilbolton 94-GHz radar

Chilbolton lidar

EnglandIsle of Wight

• Tropical convection: oceanic and orographic

Papua New Guinea

• Anvil cirrus

• Complex cloud systems

Links• CloudSat quicklooks: http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/• MODIS quicklooks: http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/

CloudSat work at Reading• Julien Delanoe, Robin Hogan (multi-sensor retrievals)• Lee Smith, Anthony Illingworth (stratocumulus retrievals)• Nicky Chalmers, Robin Hogan (cloud radiative effects)