BackForwardInstrument:  CPR (CloudSat) 

Instrument details
Acronym CPR (CloudSat)
Full name Cloud Profiling Radar for CloudSat
Purpose Vertical profile of cloud water (liquid and ice)
Short description Frequency 94.05 GHz. Sensitivity: - 30 dBZ
Background New development. Coperation with Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
Scanning Technique None.  Along-track sampling at 2 km intervals
Resolution Horizontal: 1.4 km (cross-track) x 3.5 km (along-track); vertical 500 m
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 16 days for cells of 100 km side
Mass 230 kg Power 270 W Data Rate 15 kbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2006 to 2023
Last update: 2021-06-15
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
  • Cloud and precipitation radar
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • Precipitation radars and cloud radars
  • Precipitation radar and cloud radar
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Cloud base height
  • Cloud drop effective radius
  • Cloud ice
  • Cloud ice Total Column
  • Cloud ice effective radius
  • Cloud liquid water (CLW)
  • Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column
  • Cloud top height
  • Freezing level height in clouds
  • Melting layer depth in clouds
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
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Accumulated precipitation5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.. Time sampling to be interpolated by GEO.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Sensitive to very light precipitation
Cloud base height*3 - highLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band cloud radar around 94 GHz
Cloud drop effective radius*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud ice*4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar for non-precipitating particles
Cloud ice Total Column*4 - fairLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating particles
Cloud ice effective radius*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating particles
Cloud liquid water (CLW)*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 90 GHz) for non-precipitating drops
Cloud top height*5 - marginalDense cloud only.. Along-track only.W-radar (around 94 GHz) for direct measurement of cloud top height
Freezing level height in clouds*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Detected as "bright-band"
Melting layer depth in clouds*1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Detected as "bright-band"
Precipitation (liquid or solid)5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz) for small drops or ice particles
Precipitation intensity at surface (liquid or solid)5 - marginalLight precipitation only.. Along-track only.W-band radar (around 94 GHz). Sensitive to boundary between precipitating and non-precipitating convective clouds