BackForwardInstrument:  CATS 

Instrument details
Acronym CATS
Full name Cloud-Aerosol Transport System
Purpose To observe atmospheric pollution, dust, smoke, and aerosols
Short description Three-wavelength lidar (1064, 532, and 355 nm)
Background Follow-on of CALIOP on CALIPSO
Scanning Technique 4 views (right, left, fore-, aft-) within a circle of 3.5 km close to nadir
Resolution 350 m (horizontal), 30 m (vertical)
Coverage / Cycle Limited to the latitude belt consequence of the ISS orbital inclination (51.6°)
Mass 500 kg Power 1000 W Data Rate 2 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2015-02-22 to 2017
Last update: 2014-05-28
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Lidar (Doppler lidar, backscatter lidar, lidar Dial, lidar altimeter)
WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Aerosol Optical Depth
  • Aerosol column burden
  • Aerosol effective radius
  • Aerosol mass mixing ratio
  • Aerosol type
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Tentative Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Aerosol column burden2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol effective radius2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol mass mixing ratio2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol Optical Depth2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol type2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Cloud drop effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud ice2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud ice Total Column2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud ice effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud liquid water (CLW)4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud optical depth1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Cloud top height1 - primaryInfrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Freezing level height in clouds2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Height of the top of PBL1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Height of the tropopause1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Melting layer depth in clouds2 - very highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Detected as discontinuity Mapping capability
PSC occurrence1 - primaryInfrequent coverage.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar, multi-beam. Mapping capability
Aerosol volcanic ash2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column2 - very highCloud sensitive.UV/VIS/NIR backscatter lidar