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CATS: Measuring Clouds and Aerosols from the ISS

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In 2011 the International Space Station (ISS) NASA Research Office offered scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center a mounting location onboard the space station for a new lidar instrument called the Clouds and Aerosol Transport System (CATS). Described in this brochure, CATS provides vertical profiles of cloud and aerosol properties at three wavelengths (1064, 532, and 355 nanometers). The CATS mission seeks to build on the CALIPSO data record, provide observational lidar data to improve research and operational modeling programs, and demonstrate new lidar retrievals of clouds and aerosols from space. These technologies and the science gained from the CATS mission will be used to design future missions that will study clouds and aerosols and their affects on Earth’s climate and air quality for years to come.
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