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Data Processing Center News

2/12/13 05:59 pm - 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR E06 issue

As a result of an issue that affects the quality of the product, 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR for epoch 6* is no longer available for download. After the 2011 battery anomaly the CloudSat spacecraft can no longer maintain tight formation with CALIPSO. It has been discovered that the distance threshold in the 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR algorithm is now rejecting most of the lidar data effectively resulting in a radar-only product.

Discussions are underway to resolve the issue and updates will be posted here on the DPC web page.

* E06: The current time period starting 15 May 2012 characterized by CloudSat's return to the A-Train following the 2011 battery anomaly .

2/10/13 11:30 pm - 2C-SNOW-PROFILE released to the CloudSat Science Team

The CloudSat DPC has released to the CloudSat Science Team the R04 version of the 2C-SNOW-PROFILE (snow water content and snowfall rate) product. After a short review period of approximately two weeks the product will be released to the general science community.

All data users are asked to review the updated documentation available on the CloudSat DPC website (http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu). In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions about the product to the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu before the review period has ended.

The on-line product specifications for this product are located at:
http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataSpecs.php

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface found at:
http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/data_dist/OrderData.php
If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu

11/19/12 11:51 am - 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR and 2C-ICE 2009 & 2010 released

2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR and 2C-ICE files for the years 2009 and 2010 have been released and are available on the data ordering web page and direct access FTP server (ftp1.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu).

5/18/12 10:29 am - 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product status

The 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product version P_R04 was released to the CloudSat Science Team for evaluation in December 2011. The Team has discovered two issues with the product that will prevent it from being released to the general community. A description of the issues is as follows:

The 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product (version P_R04) used a surface albedo that wasn't being updated correctly to account for day-to-day variations in sea ice due to a misinterpretation of the AMSR-E sea ice product. In addition, there was a bug found that caused clouds to be eliminated from the profile in some shallow precipitating cumulus cases.

As a result the product has been reprocessed to fix the bug and to replace the AMSR-E ice information with the Near Real-Time Ice and Snow Extent data set. The product is being reviewed by the developers and should be released to the Science Team soon.

5/15/12 03:12 am - CloudSat returns to the A-Train

The CloudSat spacecraft returned to the A-Train with an orbit raise maneuver on 15 May 2012. CloudSat is now in a position about 100 seconds behind CALIPSO. An inclination-increase maneuver will be performed in mid-July to achieve footprint overlap between CALIPSO's lidar and CloudSat's radar instruments.

3/27/12 12:00 am - 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 and the operations team is in the process of reestablishing formation. The spacecraft should be back in the A-Train by 16 May 2012.

Data collected while CloudSat was out of formation will be processed and reviewed. 2B-TAU and 2B-CWC-RVOD require MODIS data and therefore will not be produced for this period.

1/30/12 10:53 am - CloudSat releases 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR and 2C-ICE to the General Science Community

The CloudSat DPC has released to the General Science Community the R04 version of the 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR (cloud classification improved with CALIPSO lidar input) and 2C-ICE (ice cloud properties) products. This release includes the 2007 and 2008 calendar years. The rest of the mission will be released over the next few months but please periodically check the announcements section of the CloudSat DPC website or contact the DPC for updates on availability.

All data users are asked to review the associated documentation. Although currently there are no known issues with these products, please occasionally visit the Data Issues page of the Data Processing Center website and familiarize yourself with any issues before using any results in publications or presentations. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions to the DPC on our contact page.

The on-line product specifications for this product can be found here.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, please contact us.

12/21/11 10:00 pm - 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN and 2C-RAIN-PROFILE released to the General Science Community

The CloudSat DPC has released to the General Science Community the R04 versions of the 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN (surface precipitation occurrence and intensity) and 2C-RAIN-PROFILE (profiles of precipitation liquid and ice water content) products. Because this is a reprocessed version of 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN for R04 the product file names include P1_R04. This is the first production run of 2C-RAIN-PROFILE for R04; therefore its product file names include P_R04.

All data users are asked to review the associated documentation. Although currently there are no known issues with these products, please occasionally visit the Data Issues page of the Data Processing Center website and familiarize yourself with any issues before using any results in publications or presentations. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions to the DPC on our contact page.

The on-line product specifications for this product can be found here.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, please contact us.

12/21/11 09:56 pm - 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR released to the CloudSat Science Team

The CloudSat DPC has released to the CloudSat Science Team the R04 version of the 2B-FLXHR-LIDAR product (radiative fluxes and heating rates improved with CALIPSO lidar input). After a review period of approximately 45 days the product will be released to the general science community.

All data users are asked to review the updated documentation available on this website. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions about this product to the DPC on our contact page.

The on-line product specifications for this product can be found here.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, please contact us.

12/16/11 04:47 pm - 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR and 2C-ICE released to the CloudSat Science Team

The CloudSat DPC has released to the CloudSat Science Team the R04 version of the 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR (cloud classification improved with CALIPSO lidar input) and 2C-ICE (ice cloud properties) products.

This release includes the 2007 and 2008 calendar years. After a review period of approximately 45 days the rest of the mission will be processed and released to the general science community.

All data users are asked to review the updated documentation available on this website. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions about either product to the DPC on our contact page.

The on-line product specifications for these products can be found here.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, please contact us.

10/25/11 08:54 am - 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.

9/22/11 12:00 am - CloudSat Status

CloudSat is currently in "Safe Mode" while Ball system engineers run tests to determine how to manage the power loads associated with operating the CPR instrument (with the decreased capacity of the spacecraft battery). The spacecraft and instrument team is hoping to turn the radar on, in test mode, by the end of September and, if all goes well, begin to operate the radar in a daytime-only mode by mid October. CloudSat will only operate during the sunlit portion of the orbit for the duration of the mission. A decision has not yet been made on whether CloudSat will return to the A-Train ... or be allowed to drift toward the terminator (to increase the duration of sunlight on the solar panels and increase the CPR operating window).

4/18/11 12:00 am - CloudSat Anomaly

The CloudSat CPR performed a programmed shutdown, on the 17th, when the spacecraft battery voltage dropped below the CPR fault level. While Ball Engineers are doing diagnostics on the spacecraft the CPR will remain in safe mode. If the recovery procedure follows previous anomaly timelines, the CPR will likely not be operational for the next few weeks to possibly a month. We will post a notice when a decision is made to reactivate the radar.

2/21/11 12:00 am - New product Epoch number ...

We have incremented the Epoch number for CloudSat products. Epoch 04 marks the beginning of a period where the CPR pulse rate will be periodically reduced, or increased, to manage the power draw on the battery (due to the reduced power margin as the battery ages). The increased or reduced pulsing with induce a slight change in sensitivity (we will post the range after a short 1-2 week analysis period). If you need additional details about the pulse rate, the number of pulses can be found in the 1B-CPR field RayStatus_pulsesTx. The pulse rate will likely continue to be adjusted, periodically, for the duration of the mission.

Epoch 4 began with Granule 25549.

2/4/11 12:00 am - CloudSat Data Hold - Jan/Feb 2011 - due to pointing offset

CloudSat data products are being held back from release until a spacecraft pointing offset can be corrected. The offset began during the first week of January 2011 and continued through the remainder of the month. A fix has been identified and the spacecraft should be back in normal point mode by the middle of this month (Feb 2011). We will post an update as soon as data products are once again available for release.

9/28/10 01:22 pm - Reprocessed 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR released to the general science community

CloudSat has released a reprocessed version of the 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar product.�� New files will have P2_R04 in the filename. This reprocessing is driven by the release of a new version of the CALIPSO Virtual Feature Mask (VFM) that is used as input to the GEOPROF-Lidar product.�� The new CALIPSO version significantly decreases the boundary layer cloud fraction over the subtropical oceans. For more information on the changes to the CALIPSO Cloud Mask and associated CALIPSO Level 2 products go to:� http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/calipso/Quality_Summaries/CALIOP_L2VFMProducts_3.01.html .

9/8/10 12:00 am - Update on re-processed 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar product release

The CloudSat Algorithm team, along with developers from the CALIPSO Virtual Feature Mask product, is still examining the re-processed GEOPROF-Lidar product. They are developing a quantitative list of changes to the product (due to the changes in the Version 3 CALIPSO cloud mask) - that need to be completed before the new product is released to the science community. At this time, it looks like the earliest release of the product will be o/a 1 Oct ... we will post a notice here as soon as a decision is made to adjust that date.

7/6/10 09:20 am - Note to CloudSat 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar product users

The CALIPSO science team has announced that the cloud algorithm used to generate the new Version 3.x of their Virtual Feature Mask (VFM) has significantly improved the feature mask that was produced in their Version 2.x VFM. The CloudSat development team believes that the changes are significant enough to warrant the reprocessing of the 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar product, using the updated Version 3 VFM as input. We have put a hold on the release of 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar products until we finish the reprocessing the entire data set from June 2006 to present. We anticipate the release of this updated product o/a 1 August 2010. The new version will be issued with the filename identifier of 'P2_R04' and will replace the current 'P1_R04'.

5/24/10 08:47 am - 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar now available for 11-2009 through 3-2010

2B-GEOPROF-Lidar products are now released from Nov 2009 through March 2010. April and May 2010 will also be released this week. This product is generated with the CALIPSO VFM Version 2 as input. (Note - An updated GEOPROF-Lidar product will be generated, using an improved Lidar Feature Mask later this year).

2/8/10 12:00 am - CloudSat Data Released

CloudSat data are now available once again. Data have been released from Jan 16th, 2010 forward.

Due to the failure of one of the battery cells, the Radar is now operating at a slightly reduced pulse rate that will decrease the radar sensitivity by approximately 0.25 dB. Products from Jan 16th forward will be identified with an "E03" (epoch 03) in the filename to tag them to this change. The impact on CloudSat products will be an almost imperceptible decrease in the detection of very thin clouds. The CloudSat Algorithm Developer Working Group believes that the impact will be difficult to detect on individual profiles and will likely manifest itself as a slight decrease in thin cloud amounts in long-term averages. Though that decrease is expected to be very small, they would like users to be aware of this operational change.

In addition, normal operations have been modified as follows: Data will only be dumped during the sunlit portion of the orbit, to conserve battery power during the eclipse portion of the orbit. The impact will be fewer contacts, which will increase the average data latency time for "FirstLook" products to 10-12 hours. Additionally, it will be more difficult to re-dump blocks that have missing or garbled data records, so we will likely experience occasional data drops. These will be minor and infrequent, but noticeable, due to the fact that we've gone the previous 42 months with virtually no dropouts.

1/18/10 02:22 pm - CloudSat CPR back to operate mode

The CPR was successfully transitioned to operate mode at 19:36Z on the 16th of Jan. ... congratulations to the engineering team for the excellent work. After a short checkout period, of about two weeks, CloudSat data products will again be released to users. Watch this site for an update when data products are available. NOTE: If you are involved in validation exercises or have an urgent need for the data, please contact the DPC at: cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu

12/30/09 03:36 pm - CloudSat Battery Anomaly Update

The CloudSat engineering team has developed a plan for bringing the radar back to operating mode. They will be running battery load tests over the next two weeks. If the tests are successful, the schedule calls for the radar to transition to operate mode on the 16th of January.

12/30/09 03:30 pm - CloudSat Two-Line Element - Filename change

Starting on Jan 1st 2009 the AF will be changing their filename convention for the CloudSat two-line element set files. The new filename will have a two-digit year vs. the current one-digit year: yyjjjlset.txt

12/21/09 08:20 pm - Update to CloudSat Status

Due to the upcoming holidays (and a number of the ops team members pending travel plans) ... the CloudSat Management Team has decided to allow the battery to stabilize at it's current configuration for the next two weeks ... and then attempt to turn the radar back on in early January. We will post a notice on this News link when the radar is once again operational.

12/17/09 11:16 am - Update to CloudSat Safe Hold status ...

The problem which caused the spacecraft to go into safe mode was a failed cell in the spacecraft battery. The failed cell caused the voltage to drop below the first "under voltage" threshold, which shut down the radar to prevent further drain on the battery. The battery has now stabilized and the CloudSat Mission Operations team is running tests to determine if it is safe to turn the radar back on. The current estimate is that the radar will not be powered on earlier than the 22nd of December.

12/9/09 10:32 am - CloudSat went into "safe" mode on Monday Dec 7th ,,,

CloudSat experienced a UV-1 trip (battery level below the low voltage limit) prior to leaving eclipse on Monday morning. This resulted in the spacecraft going into "safe" mode. Ball Aerospace Engineers will be looking at telemetry data over the next few days to determine if it is safe to turn the CPR instrument back on. The initial estimate is that the radar may not be turned on before the 10th of Dec.

10/15/09 12:00 am - 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar ... Lidar data Notice from CALIPSO Data Center

Following is a notice from the CALIPSO data center with important information about the CALIPSO data used to produce this product. It is likely that most users will not be adversely affected by this notice, but we wanted everyone to be aware of it so they can assess whether it affects their products. The dates affected are March 12th 2009 through Jun 10th 2009.
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"The CALIPSO Lidar Level 1B Version 3.00 data were processed using old values for the 532 nm and 1064 nm Rayleigh backscatter and extinction cross-sections that are used to derive the molecular scattering models applied during calibration. In Version 2.02, a small (~0.8%) error was corrected in the calculation of the extinction cross-sections. In Version 3.00, the updated cross-sections were inadvertently replaced by older values. To correct this error, the 532 nm and 1064 nm Rayleigh backscatter and extinction cross-sections have been restored to their corrected values and the Lidar Level 1B data will be reprocessed to Version 3.01."

they also stated: "We are working to get the Version 3.01 Lidar Level 2 code ready for reprocessing. We plan to have those data available early 2010. There are many updates in this version and it is suggested that users access and use the Version 3.01 Level 2 data for their analysis."
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CloudSat 2B-GEOPROF-Lidar products for the period March 12th 2009 through Jun 10th(and beyond)will be re-processed when CALIPSO level 2 data become available � watch this "NEWS" section for updates.

10/13/09 11:22 am - 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM reprocessed data available

The CloudSat-TRMM product has been reprocessed to correct an error in the TRMM "block" data latitude/longitude values. No other data fields were affected by this error, including the lat/lon values in "curtain" data fields. Therefore only the lat/lon values of the TRMM "block" data have been replaced in this revision. The updated product files have been posted on the CloudSat data ordering site with the addition of a "_v03" string in the file names.

8/10/09 04:25 pm - 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM availability update

A problem with the TRMM precipitation radar on 29 May 2009 forced a switchover to the spare system. It is anticipated that data will be available again in September after system check-out and re-calibration.

4/3/09 12:25 pm - 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM January 2009 data released

January 2009 data for the 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM product have been released and are available on the data ordering system web page or via direct FTP as described here.

3/30/09 08:00 am - 2B-CWC-RVOD and 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN released to the general science community

The 2B-CWC-RVOD and 2C-PRECIP-COLUMN products were released to the general science community and are available on the data ordering system web page.

2B-CWC-RVOD contains cloud water content (liquid and ice) retrieved using CloudSat reflectivity data and the 2B-TAU optical depth product.

2C-PRECIP-COLUMN contains estimates of precipitation retrieved for each CloudSat radar column or ray.

Product specifications and process description documents can be found on the product documentation page and any known issues with each product can be found on the data issues page.

2/8/09 12:00 am - CloudSat Operational

10/28/08 03:31 pm - 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM data available via direct FTP

You can now access 2D-CLOUDSAT-TRMM data via direct FTP access at ftp1.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu. FTP access is enabled within five minutes of registering for a new account, or for accounts set up before 29 Oct 2008, within five minutes of your first login after this date. Data are stored in directories by product name, year, and day number. A perl script that will retrieve data in the directory tree given a range of dates is available from the resources page.

7/15/08 10:19 am - Reprocessed R04 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR released to the General Science Community

The CloudSat DPC has released, to the General Science Community, a reprocessed R04 version of the 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR product. This is the version that has been modified to account for the off-nadir pointing of CALIPSO and the CALIPSO VFM Version 2 reprocessing. The new files are identified as "P1_R04" (the previous version was "P_R04").

All data users are asked to review the updated documentation. In addition, please visit the "Known Issues" page of the Data Processing Center website and familiarize yourself with these issues before using the results in publications or presentations. This page is located at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataIssues.php. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions to the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu.

The on-line product specifications for these updated products are located at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataSpecs.php.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface found at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/data_dist/OrderData.php.

If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu

6/2/08 12:00 am - Reprocessed R04 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR released to the Science Team

The CloudSat DPC has released, to the CloudSat Science Team, a reprocessed R04 version of the 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR product. This is the version that has been modified to account for the off-nadir pointing of CALIPSO and the CALIPSO VFM Version 2 reprocessing. The new files are identified as "P1_R04" (the previous version was "P_R04").

After a review period of approximately 30 days, the product will be released to the General Science Community.

All data users are asked to review the updated documentation. In addition, please visit the "Known Issues" page of the Data Processing Center website and familiarize yourself with these issues before using the results in publications or presentations. This page is located at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataIssues.php. In addition, we ask that you report any anomalies or questions to the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu.

The on-line product specifications for these updated products are located at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/dataSpecs.php.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface found at http://cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/data_dist/OrderData.php.

If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC at cloudsat@cira.colostate.edu

3/18/08 04:15 pm - R04 of 2B-TAU released to the general science community

Release 4 of 2B-TAU (cloud optical depth) is now available to the General Science Community via the data ordering system.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

11/28/07 12:00 am - CALIPSO Pitch Maneuver - impact on CloudSat

CALIPSO is planning to execute a pitch maneuver today to point 3 degrees in the forward direction. Tomorrow, CloudSat will move to a new formation position that is approximately 5 seconds forward from it's current position in order to continue to sample the same atmospheric volume as CALIPSO. This will put Cloudsat between 15 and 20 seconds in front of CALIPSO. Due to the modified view angle of CALIPSO, the combined product(2B-GEOPROF-Lidar) will have to be re-validated prior to release to the science community. The updated product is expected to be released to the CloudSat Science Team by March/April 2008 and to the general science community by May 2008. Check back for updates on those release dates.

11/5/07 09:00 am - R04 of 2B-FLXHR released to the general science community

Release 4 of 2B-FLXHR (Fluxes and Heating Rates) is now available to the General Science Community via the data ordering system.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

10/22/07 12:00 am - R04 of 2B-CWC-RO released to General Science Community

Release 4 of 2B-CWC-RO (cloud water content - liquid and ice) is now available to the General Science Community via the data ordering system.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

9/17/07 04:37 pm - R04 of ECMWF-AUX, MODIS-AUX, & 2B-CLDCLASS released to General Science Community

Release 4 of ECMWF-AUX, MODIS-AUX, and 2B-CLDCLASS is now available to the General Science Community via the data ordering system.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

8/10/07 09:19 am - R04 Released to General Science Community

Release 4 of 1B-CPR, 2B-GEOPROF, and 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR is now available to the General Science Community via the data ordering system. This release incorporates several improvements for the data products primarily driven by the development of a surface clutter reduction scheme in 1B-CPR. This affects all products by improving cloud detection near the Earth's surface. In addition, the profile overlap at the beginning and end of each granule has been removed. Granules now start with the first profile on or after the equator on a descending pass and end with the last profile before the equator on the next descending pass. Release 4 also includes the first release of the 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR product.

This annoucement to the General Science Community applies to the 1B-CPR, 2B-GEOPROF, and 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR products only. The new release of MODIS-AUX, ECMWF-AUX, and 2B-CLDCLASS is still only available to the CloudSat Science Team.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

8/1/07 10:05 am - R04 2B-CLDCLASS Released to Science Team

Release 4 of the 2B-CLDCLASS product was released to the Science Team today.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC

7/19/07 08:45 am - R04 available to the Science Team

Release 4 is now available to the CloudSat Science Team via the data ordering system. This release incorporates several improvements for the data products primarily driven by the development of a surface clutter reduction scheme in 1B-CPR. This affects all products by improving cloud detection near the Earth's surface. In addition, the profile overlap at the beginning and end of each granule has been removed. Granules now start with the first profile on or after the equator on a descending pass and end with the last profile before the equator on the next descending pass. Release 4 also includes the first release of the 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR product.

This annoucement applies to the 1B-CPR, MODIS-AUX, ECMWF-AUX, 2B-GEOPROF, and 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR products.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page, on-line product specifications, and the summary of changes. If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

6/29/07 09:38 am - Rain floods Central Texas

On June 26, 2007, CloudSat flew on the western side of the system that is causing flooding in Central Texas and Southern Oklahoma. See the CloudSat Quicklook and more information here! (Note: Clicking this link will take you outside the CloudSat DPC website.)

6/23/07 10:33 am - New Product Description Documents

A new quality statement is available for 2B-GEOPROF and a new ICD is available for 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR.

5/22/07 12:00 am - Publication Reference Submission Link Available

Are you publishing a paper or giving a presentation that includes CloudSat data or results gained from CloudSat data? If you are, let us know! You can now submit a publication reference here.

4/27/07 12:00 am - CloudSat Celebrates One Year Above Earth

CloudSat will celebrate it's first anniversary Saturday after hvaing launched on April 28, 2006. For the entire story, click here.

3/21/07 02:29 pm - Spacecraft in safe mode 17 - 21 March

The spacecraft entered safe mode at 2214 UTC on Saturday, 17 March 2007 due to a commanding error. Normal operation resumed at 1429 UTC on Wednesday, 21 March.

1/26/07 03:58 pm - Public release of remaining CloudSat standard data products

The CloudSat Data Processing Center (DPC) has released a Beta version of the final 3 Standard Data Products. These data are now available to the general science community.

It is important for all users to note that these products, as well as all of the CloudSat Standard products in release 03 (identified in the filename as "_R03_" ) are provisional products that are still undergoing validation by the CloudSat Science Team. These products will be superseded by Release 04 on/about July of 2007 and will, at that time, address known issues and other findings from the results of ongoing validation efforts during the remainder of our first year of data collection. In particular, the CWC, TAU, and FLXHR products are only released at this time for the period of 10/15-11/15 of 2006 to allow the science community to become familiar with them and to do their own quantitative assessment of these initial CloudSat products.

All data users are asked to review the known issues page of the Data Processing Center website and become familiar with these issues before using the results in publications or presentations. In addition, please report any additional anomalies or questions to the DPC via email or the contact page.

Other resources:
Online product specifications
Configuration control information
Data ordering system

1/23/07 01:38 pm - 2B-GEOPROF quality statement now available

All users of release R03 2B-GEOPROF files should download and read the 2B-GEOPROF quality statement. The statement and all future product issues are also available from the Data Issues page.

1/2/07 09:23 am - CloudSat's One-Millionth Cloud!

CloudSat has seen its one-millionth cloud just east of the Phillippines in October.

A "cloud" in this case was figured as a contiguous regions of 3 or more pixels where the cloud mask variable is 20 or greater.

This image is courtesy of Brian Mapes of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.

12/22/06 06:48 pm - 2B-CWC-RO released to the Science Team

The 2B-CWC-RO product is now being generated for release to the Science Team. After a brief review period it will be released to the general science community.

Be sure to check the production status page before searching for files of interest on the data ordering system.

12/15/06 04:48 pm - 2B-LWC and 2B-IWC being merged into 2B-CWC

The 2B-LWC (liquid water content) and 2B-IWC (ice water content) products will be merged into one 2B-CWC (cloud water content) product for both RO and RVOD schemes. The new products will have the same information that the original products had, with added fields that partition ice and water inside the clouds based on temperature.

The process of creating the 2B-CWC products has pushed the estimated time of release back one week.

Summary:
2B-LWC-RO and 2B-IWC-RO become 2B-CWC-RO.
2B-LWC-RVOD and 2B-IWC-RVOD become 2B-CWC-RVOD.

12/13/06 09:57 am - Updates to the quicklook page

Several updates to the quicklook page have been made that make it more informative and easier to use.

Information has been added to each granule that indicates if there are missing profiles, the transmitter was not operating, or if a calibration maneuver was performed. These conditions are flagged with a colored box. Clicking on the box will pop-up a window with more details.

The page navigation pull-down menu now includes the granule number and date/time for the first granule on each page, making it much easier to jump directly to a page containing a granule you might be interested in.

Finally, the quicklook page has been optimized so it should load much faster than it did in the past.

11/29/06 09:08 am - FTP server back up

The CIRA firewall has been upgraded and the CloudSat FTP server is back online. Preliminary tests show an improvement in FTP transfer rates.

11/28/06 09:19 pm - FTP server down until Wednesday morning

Data access through the CloudSat FTP server is down until early Wednesday morning as the CIRA firewall is upgraded. The change should help improve FTP download speeds. The FTP server became unavailable around 2 pm MST on Tuesday the 28th.

11/17/06 10:30 am - R03 release of 1B-CPR, 2B-GEOPROF and 2B-CLDCLASS

The CloudSat DPC has completed the reprocessing of 1B-CPR, 2B-GEOPROF, and 2B-CLDCLASS products for the first five months of the mission. These data are released to the Science Community.

NOTE to Science Team members who have been pulling older version data for their preliminary assessments: This reprocessing includes changes to the output fields of all of these products, so be sure to replace any older versions of these products with the current version that is available through the data ordering system.

The "process description documents" for these products are still being updated, so be sure to use the on-line specifications, which are all current. See the on-line product specifications pages and the summary of changes.

To access the released data, use the DPC data ordering system interface.

If you have any questions concerning the ordering process, contact the DPC.

10/16/06 04:07 pm - R03 processing will begin after the science team meeting

R03 processing was originally supposed to be completed by 9 October, but a error was discovered in the Satellite_altitude field causing the incorrect calculation of bin heights in the Level 2 products. This problem does not affect the R02 files. R03 corrects the geolocation data for the off-nadir periods (pre-7 July and post 15 August). Processing will begin after the science team meeting the week of 16-20 October.

10/3/06 12:00 pm - CloudSat radar operating again

The radar has been reactivated. A data gap exists from 9/26/06 00:30 UTC through 10/03/2006 14:10 UTC. The CPR was not operating during this period.

9/28/06 12:00 pm - CloudSat spacecraft in safe mode

On 26 September, the CloudSat spacecraft entered a safe mode known as Sun Acquire. In sun acquire mode, the spacecraft and the radar are safe but the radar is not operating. The spacecraft was successfully returned to Earth-Pointing mode today, and we are taking steps to return the radar to Operating mode, which we anticipate will occur on 3 October.

6/2/06 12:00 pm - CloudSat radar powered on

The CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar was turned on at approximately 14:44 UTC. CloudSat is operating nominally and returning an amazing view of the vertical structure of a myriad of cloud systems - a view that is now possible, for the first time, on a global scale.

4/28/06 12:00 pm - Successful launch of CloudSat and CALIPSO

CloudSat and CALIPSO were launched at 4:02 MDT on 28 April 2006.

4/25/06 12:00 pm - CloudSat launch rescheduled for 28 April

The launch of CloudSat and CALIPSO has been rescheduled for 28 April 2006.