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A-train (satellite Constellation)
The A-train (from Afternoon Train) is a satellite constellation of four Earth observation satellites of varied nationality in sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of slightly variable for each satellite. The orbit, at an inclination of 98.14°, crosses the equator each day at around 1:30 pm solar time, giving the constellation its name (the "A" stands for "afternoon") and crosses the equator again on the night side of the Earth, at around 1:30 am. They are spaced a few minutes apart from each other so their collective observations may be used to build high-definition three-dimensional images of Earth's atmosphere and surface. Satellites Active The train, , consists of three active satellites: * OCO-2, lead spacecraft in formation, replaces the failed OCO and was launched for NASA on July 2, 2014. * GCOM-W1 "SHIZUKU", follows OCO-2 by 11 minutes, launched by JAXA on May 18, 2012. * Aura, a multi-national satellite, lags OCO-2 by 19 minutes, launched for NASA on July 15, 2004. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A-Train W-Time2013 Web
is a series of business simulation video games developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink in Japan. The first game in the series was published in 1985. The first release in the United States was ''Take the A-Train II'', published in 1988 by the Seika Corporation under the title ''Railroad Empire''. However, the most well known U.S. release is ''Take the A-Train III'', published in 1992 by Maxis as simply ''A-Train''. __TOC__ A-Train The first iteration of the A-Train series was released in December 1985 for the FM-7, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801, X1 Turbo, MZ-2500, Famicom and MSX2. A Windows 95/ 98 port followed in April 2000. A-Train II The second iteration of the A-Train series was released in July 1988 for the NEC PC-9801 and Sharp X68000. In the US, it was released under the name ''Railroad Empire''. A-Train III ''Take the A-Train III'' (known internationally as ''A-Train'') is the third game in the A-Train series. It was originally developed and publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GCOM
GCOM (Global Change Observation Mission), is a JAXA project of long-term observation of Earth environmental changes. As a part of Japan's contributions to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems), GCOM will be continued for 10 to 15 years with observation and utilization of global geophysical data such as precipitation, snow, water vapor, aerosol, for climate change prediction, water management, and food security. On May 18, 2012, the first satellite "GCOM-W" (nickname "Shizuku") was launched. On December 23, 2017, the second satellite "GCOM-C1" (nickname "Shikisai) was launched. GCOM-W GCOM-W (Global Change Observation Mission – Water "Shizuku") is the first in the GCOM series. Its mission is to observe the water cycle. The satellite carries the AMSR2 (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2) instrument, the successor to the AMSR-E carried by Aqua. This microwave radiometer will observe precipitation, water vapor, wind velocity above the ocean, sea water temperatur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glory (satellite)
The Glory satellite was a planned NASA satellite mission that would have collected data on the chemical, micro-physical and optical properties—and the spatial and temporal distributions—of sulfate and other aerosols, and would have collected solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record. The science focus areas served by Glory included: atmospheric composition; carbon cycle, ecosystems, and biogeochemistry; climate variability and change; and water and energy cycles. The US$424 million satellite was lost on 4 March 2011, when its Taurus XL carrier rocket malfunctioned. A subsequent investigation revealed that the fairing system failed to open fully, causing the satellite to reenter the atmosphere at which point it likely broke up and burned. NASA investigators later determined the cause for the launch failure to be faulty materials provided by aluminum manufacturer Sapa Profiles. Spacecraft The Glory spacecraft bus uses Orbital Science Corporation's LEOStar bus de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbiting Carbon Observatory
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is a NASA satellite mission intended to provide global space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (). The original spacecraft was lost in a launch failure on 24 February 2009, when the payload fairing of the Taurus rocket which was carrying it failed to separate during ascent. The added mass of the fairing prevented the satellite from reaching orbit. It subsequently re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Indian Ocean near Antarctica. The replacement satellite, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, was launched 2 July 2014 aboard a Delta II rocket. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3, a stand-alone payload built from the spare OCO-2 flight instrument, was installed on the International Space Station Kibō Exposed Facility in May 2019. Mission description OCO's measurements are designed to be accurate enough to show for the first time the geographic distribution of carbon dioxide sources and sinks on a regional scale. The data i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aqua (satellite)
Aqua (EOS PM-1) is a NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water. It is the second major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) preceded by Terra (launched 1999) and followed by Aura (launched 2004). The name "Aqua" comes from the Latin word for water. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 4, 2002, aboard a Delta II rocket. Aqua operated in a sun-synchronous orbit as the third in the satellite formation called the " A Train" with several other satellites (OCO-2, the Japanese GCOM W1, PARASOL, CALIPSO, CloudSat, and Aura) for most of its first 20 years; but in January 2022 Aqua left the A-Train (as CloudSat, CALIPSO and PARASOL had already done) when, due to its fuel limitations, it transitioned to a free-drift mode, wherein its equatorial crossing time is slowly drifting to later times, from its tightly controlled orbit. Mission Aqua is one of NASA's missions for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CNES
The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research. It operates from the Toulouse Space Centre and the Guiana Space Centre, but also has payloads launched from space centres operated by other countries. The president of CNES is Philippe Baptiste. CNES is a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies. It is Europe's largest and most important national organization of its type. History CNES was established under President Charles de Gaulle in 1961. It is the world's third oldest space agency, after the Soviet space program (Russia), and NASA (United States). CNES was responsible for the training of French astronauts, until the last active CNES astronauts transferred to the European Space Agency in 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CALIPSO
CALIPSO is a joint NASA (USA) and CNES (France) environmental satellite, built in the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, which was launched atop a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. Its name stands for Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. CALIPSO Launched Alongside CloudSat. Passive and active remote sensing Instruments on board the CALIPSO satellite monitor aerosols and clouds 24 hours a day. CALIPSO is part of the " A Train", flying in formation with several other satellites (Aqua, Aura and CloudSat). Mission Three instruments: * Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) - a lidar that provides high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds. * Wide Field Camera (WFC) - a modified version of the commercial off-the-shelf Ball Aerospacebr>CT-633 star tracker camera. It was selected to match band 1 of the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. * Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) - used to detect cirrus cloud emissivity and part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CloudSat
CloudSat is a NASA Earth observation satellite, which was launched on a Delta II rocket on April 28, 2006. It uses radar to measure the altitude and properties of clouds, adding to information on the relationship between clouds and climate in order to help resolve questions about global warming. It has been in daytime-only operations since 2011 due to battery malfunction, requiring sunlight to power the radar. The mission was selected under NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program in 1999. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, designed and built the spacecraft. CloudSat's primary mission was scheduled to continue for 22 months in order to allow more than one seasonal cycle to be observed. Instrument The main instrument on CloudSat is the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), a 94-GHz nadir-looking radar that measures the power backscattered by clouds as a function of distance from the radar. The radar instrument was developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PARASOL (satellite)
PARASOL (Polarization & Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar) was a French-built Earth observing research satellite. It carried an instrument called POLDER which studied the radiative and microphysical properties of clouds and aerosols. PARASOL was launched from the French spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on December 18, 2004 by an Ariane 5 G+. It flew in formation in the " A Train" constellation with several other satellites (Aqua, CALIPSO, CloudSat and Aura). These satellites had, for the first time ever, combined a full suite of instruments for observing clouds and aerosols, from passive radiometers to active lidar and radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ... sounders. On 2 December 2009, PARASOL was man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aura (satellite)
Aura (EOS CH-1) is a multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the Earth's ozone layer, air quality and climate. It is the third major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) following on Terra (launched 1999) and Aqua (launched 2002). Aura follows on from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Aura is a joint mission between NASA, the Netherlands, Finland, and the U.K. The Aura spacecraft is healthy and is expected to operate until at least 2022, likely beyond. The name " Aura" comes from the Latin word for air. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on July 15, 2004, aboard a Delta II 7920-10L rocket. The Aura spacecraft has a mass of about . The body is long with the extended single solar panel about long. Aura flies in a sun-synchronous orbit, in formation with 3 other satellites, collectively known as the " A Train"; it is last in the formation. The other satellites in the formation are: * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JAXA
The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions such as asteroid exploration and possible human exploration of the Moon. Its motto is ''One JAXA'' and its corporate slogan is ''Explore to Realize'' (formerly ''Reaching for the skies, exploring space''). History On 1 October 2003, three organizations were merged to form the new JAXA: Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL), and National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). JAXA was formed as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). Before the merger, ISA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968-1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
