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CNES Press release

Paris, 25 June 2003

Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for CALIPSO

On June 18, 2003, CNES President & CEO, Yannick d'Escatha and NASA
Administrator, Sean O'Keefe met at CNES headquarters in Paris. During
this bilateral meeting, the two agency heads signed the Memorandum Of
Understanding for the Calipso earth observation mission.

Our understanding and consequently our forecasting of the Earth's
global climate are currently limited by lack of knowledge on the
radiative impact of clouds and aerosols. The CALIPSO mission
(Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infra-Red Pathfinder Satellite Observations)
aims to provide the first set of data on vertical profiles of the
atmosphere, to be measured by the first satellite-borne backscatter
lidar. 

Calipso will fly in formation with two other American missions, AQUA
and CLOUDSAT, and also with the French microsatellite, PARASOL.
Together, these satellites will form an exceptional space-based
observatory, 'the Aqua train', placed in a sun synchronous orbit at
altitude of 705 km, and equipped for all active and passive
measurement techniques. AQUA was launched in April 2002 with a
nominal lifetime of 5 years. PARASOL will be launched in October
2004. CALIPSO and CLOUDSAT should be put into orbit by a Delta 2
launcher in November 2004 . 

The project is being conducted in cooperation with NASA which is
responsible for the mission and the overall system and which is also
providing the payload and the launcher. CNES is responsible for the
satellite and its control and is providing the satellite bus (under
contract with Alcatel Space) and the infrared imaging radiometer
(under contract with SODERN). The science operations site has been
developed by NASA while CNES is in charge of the expertise site for
the infrared imaging radiometer. The Aqua train data will be analysed
and processed at the new ICARE centre (Interactions Clouds Aerosols
Radiations Etc) based in Lille, which CNES has developed with its
French partners for studying clouds, aerosols and solar rays. 

After Jason 1, which has been in orbit since December 2001, this
satellite will also be flying a PROTEUS bus and will carry three
instruments: an infrared lidar which is the main instrument, equipped
with a 1-metre telescope, a wide-field camera working in the visible
range and a thermal infrared imager with three channels. The infrared
imaging radiometer was delivered by CNES to NASA for integration in
the payload on April 2003. The bus and the payload are now being
integrated and tested respectively in France and the United States.

The ground segments are currently being developed, the CNES station
in Kiruna is in the final acceptance stage and CNES and NASA will
conduct the first assembly tests this fall.

The ground and operation system should be commissioned during the
summer of 2004.

This sustainable development project marks a significant new step in
French/American cooperation in the field of Earth observation.

Contact Presse :

Eliane Moreaux - tél. : 05 61 27 33 44 - fax : 05 61 28 21 47

e-mail : eliane.moreaux{at}cnes.fr

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