Status of the CloudSat Mission

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the CloudSat mission as it relates to precipitation remote sensing. We describe how the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) contributes to the global observing system through precise precipitation detection, quantification of snowfall rate, quantification of light rain fall, and stratiform/convective delineation. We provide an overview of the mission operations, which have changed at several points throughout the mission history, introducing sampling artifacts in the diurnal cycle that need to be accounted for when using the data. Finally, we describe the three operational precipitation products produced by the CloudSat data system.