On February 13th, the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. free-flying atmospheric lidar aboard NASA’s Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission fired its one billionth laser pulse over the Ivory Coast. This makes CALIPSO the longest lasting, most powerful on-orbit space laser. The Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument aboard CALIPSO was developed by Ball Aerospace, its Virginia-based subcontractor, Fibertek, and NASA Langley. CALIOP is a two-wavelength polarization-sensitive lidar that provides high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds. The CALIPSO mission is providing new insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosol (airborne particles) play in regulating Earth’s weather, climate, and air quality. CALIOP is the longest lasting, most powerful lidar on orbit—Boulder, Colorado (hl)
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