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we wanted to take this opportunity to

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talk about one of the investigations

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that's headed to the international space

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station the next cargo craft that's

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headed to the orbital complex is planned

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to launch next week and one of the

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experiments that will be

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on board is part of the experiment

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called cats or the cloud aerosol

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transport system this is going to use a

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lidar system pointed back down at the

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earth to help create better models of

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the planet's climate feedback processes

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so we have two gentlemen here this

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morning to join us to talk about this dr

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matthew mcgill and co-investigator dr

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john yorks joining us from nasa's

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goddard space flight center in greenbelt

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maryland good morning good morning good

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morning thanks so much for joining us

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matt can you tell me where the idea for

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sure nicole thanks

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the the cloud aerosol transport system

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or cats it's a it's an instrument a new

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earth science instrument for the space

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station

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designed to characterize the global

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distribution of clouds and tiny aerosol

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particles in the earth's atmosphere

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the instrument heritage for cats is

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derived from our long-standing heritage

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in developing

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high fidelity instruments for nasa's

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high altitude aircraft such as the er-2

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the science behind cats derives from our

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need to

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demonstrate advanced measurement

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concepts that can be used on future free

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flyer satellite missions

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great and can you describe the hardware

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sure

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cats as you mentioned it's a laser

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remote sensing instrument or lidar

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and lidar works a lot like radar except

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we use low energy pulses of laser light

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the cat's instrument has

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two lasers each with different

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characteristics a receiving telescope

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and special photon counting detectors

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it's about the size of a household

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refrigerator you see in the animation

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there

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and capability packed into the to the

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box

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once on iss cats will mount to the

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japanese experiment module exposed

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facility and it can operate there for up

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to three years

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john would you explain how this lidar

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system measures particulates in the

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cats uses a laser that generates three

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wavelengths or colors of light

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internal to the laser special optical

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crystals are used to generate these

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wavelengths by taking the energy of two

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photons and adding them together to

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create a single new photon the final

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output beam is made up of all three of

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these wavelengths and these photons are

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then transmitted to the atmosphere

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in groups at the speed of light as the

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photons encounter clouds and particles

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scattering of the laser beam occurs

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very few of these photons are actually

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scattered back to the instruments

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optical telescope but the ones that are

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are

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collected and counted by

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sensitive

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detectors and

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electronics

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by timing the difference between the

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emission and detection of the

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photons emitted

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we can determine the

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altitude of the particles in the earth's

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atmosphere thus cats will measure the

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vertical distribution of the particles

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in the earth's atmosphere

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okay and how does the presence of those

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particles impact the climate processes

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well small particles from desert dust

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such as

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uh dustin and also

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um

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known as aerosols

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aerosols besides their harmful impact on

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human health can also impact climate by

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directly

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scattering and

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absorbing solar radiation they can also

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indirectly

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influence climate by interacting with

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clouds

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uncertainties in climate prediction

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because they are a key regulator of the

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planet's average temperature

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water clouds near the surface tend to

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reflect sunlight

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back to space cooling the earth's

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surface while

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high ice clouds tend to trap the earth's

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radiation and warm the atmosphere

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changes in the abundance or location of

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these clouds and aerosols can have a big

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impact on climate even more so than the

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effect of greenhouse gases

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computer models that forecast climate

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change

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will use cats data to improve their

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forecasts

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and

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prediction

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okay does the orbital path of the space

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station matter in terms of the data

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you're going to gather

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the iss orbit is a great match with the

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goals of the cats instrument the 51

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degree inclination orbit provides

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comprehensive coverage of the tropics

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and mid-latitudes

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and it also encompasses the majority of

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the earth's population and land masses

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in addition the iss

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passes over a different location at a

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different

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local time every time and this permits

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studies of data night changes in

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clouds and aerosols

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which cannot be obtained from polar

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orbiting earth science satellites okay

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very interesting matt will cats run

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continuously and how is it commanded and

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controlled

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sure

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cats is controlled from a very simple

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ground station here at goddard using iss

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provided software they have a software

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package called trek they provide that to

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the users

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cats is designed to operate autonomously

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so once it's on

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and we're safe for operation we can

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operate for extended periods of time now

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because it's a laser when astronauts are

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out and about we do turn off the laser

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for safety concerns and when there are

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docking vehicles

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will turn off because the exhaust plumes

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from the vehicles can contaminate or

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damage our sensitive optics

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aside from that we're intended to

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operate continuously or near

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continuously

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sending data in near real time down to

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the ground where it's going to be

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continuously

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injected into these aerosol forecast

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models that john talked about okay

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i also know that katz is part of the

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earth right now campaign can you tell us

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how the cat's mission fits in with that

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sure

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cats is really a cost effective way to

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demonstrate new earth science

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measurements and new technologies uh

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using the iss is a low-cost easy access

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platform

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technologies in the cat's instrument so

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for example the lasers or specific

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technologies that are in the detector

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receiver chain

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they're providing on orbit demonstration

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and validation that the technologies and

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the measurement concept behind cats are

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mature enough and ready to use in the

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more demanding more expensive

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nasa free flyer missions in the future

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we used what we call a build to cost

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approach to building cats we think

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that's a fiscally responsible way to

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approach these

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tech demo and risk reduction

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measurements for earth science and as uh

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space station matures now into an

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operational science platform

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utilizing that capability for earth

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science becomes an exciting new era for

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the earth science community

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great well thank you both gentlemen for

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joining us we really appreciate it again

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dr matthew mcgill and dr john yorks from

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the goddard space flight center you can

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find out more about their research at