Welcome to the Cloudsat orbit browser. We are displaying Cloudsat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) reflectivity images derived from the level 2 geometrical profiling algorithm (2B GEOPROF) over global maps of cloud properties extracted from the Joint Atmospheres product produced by the MODIS Atmospheres Team using the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. The following bullets provide a brief explanation of the information displayed on this site.

• Displaying imagery is straightforward. From the pull-down menus choose the day of interest, the desired map projection, and the product (currently only CPR is available). Then click the "submit" button. Pages take several seconds to load. Run you pointer along an orbit and thumbnail imagery is displayed. Clicking on a thumbnail will open a larger graphic. To continue along the orbit, buttons are provided in the larger graphic to move forward or backwards, or the graphic can be removed from the screen and browsing can continue with the pointer.

• The radar reflectivity images are derived from a beta version of the level 2 geometrical profile product (2B Geoprof) that will be released as part of the Cloudsat standard data products. Hydrometeor layers in the imagery can be denoted by the color scale on the right of the image. Solid tan pixels near the bottom of the plots denote pixels contaminated by surface return. Other groups of tan-colored pixels that are not near the surface are due to the cloud masking algorithm identifying either very weak clouds or noise. These pixels may or may not be from hydrometeors. We show them here to aid in our own evaluation of the product. Pixels that are below the ground are displayed as black and are always below the tan-colored ground return pixels. Examining imagery from an orbit that runs over a major mountain range such as the Himalaya will help clarify this explanation.

• The MODIS Joint Atmosphere product is only produced from daytime MODIS imagery. Therefore, the nighttime Cloudsat orbits (those running from northeast to southwest) are overlain on imagery that does not correspond to the CPR imagery that is displayed.

• Dr. Roger Marchand of the Pacific Northwest National Labs is the author of the cloud masking algorithm, Dr. Qiquing Zhang of the University of Utah implemented the 2B Geoprof algorithm, and Mr. Chris Galli authored the computer code that generates these display pages from the raw data files.

• Additional information on Cloudsat can be found at http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/

• Additional information on the MODIS Joint Atmospheres product can be found at http://modis-atmos.gsfc.nasa.gov/JOINT/format.html

• Questions, suggestions, or problems can be addressed to Jay Mace at mace.utah.edu. This site will likely change often as we learn more about the data and find better ways to display it. If you'd like to be informed of updates send an email to Chris Galli at cgalli@met.utah.edu.

• Data will be added to the browser episodically. Until the processing becomes more automated, we anticipate adding data to the browser approximately once per week.