Take the A-Train
Introducing the A-Train
Mention the "A-Train" and most people probably think of the jazz legend Billy Strayhorn or perhaps New York City subway trains — not climate change. However, it turns out that a convoy of "A-Train" satellites has emerged as one of the most powerful tools scientists have for understanding our planet’s changing climate.
Related A-Train Links
A-Train mission website
A-Train multimedia gallery
A-Train Physics Today feature
A-Train Symposium blog
NASA Edge at the A-Train Symposium
Together, these four satellites contain 15 separate scientific instruments that observe the same path of Earth's atmosphere and surface at a broad swath of wavelengths. At the front of the train, Aqua carries instruments that produce measurements of temperature, water vapor, and rainfall. Next in line, CloudSat, a cooperative effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and CALIPSO, a joint effort of the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and NASA, have high-tech laser and radar instruments that offer three-dimensional views of clouds and airborne particles called aerosols. And the caboose, Aura, has a suite of instruments that produce high-resolution vertical maps of greenhouse gases, among many other atmospheric constituents.
The A-Train will expand with the launch of NASA's carbon-tracking Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) satellite, scheduled for no earlier than 2014. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W1), which monitors ocean circulation. Meanwhile, a fifth satellite, France’s Polarization and Anistropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Science coupled with Observations from a Lidar (PARASOL), which studies aerosols, is easing out of an A-Train orbit as its fuel supplies dwindle.
-
Glory Promises New View of Perplexing Particles
A new satellite should help scientists pinpoint just how much of an effect on climate aerosols can have.
-
Glory Aims to Unravel Mysteries of Aerosols
Engineers and technicians at Vandenberg Air Force base, Calif., are preparing the Earth-observing satellite Glory for launch on Feb. 23.
-
A-Train Outreach Jazzes Up Science With New Orleans Students
When NASA scientists visited New Orleans to set up the A-Train Symposium, employees at the hotel hosting the event asked them to reach out to local students.
-
The PARASOL Satellite Moving Off the A-Train's Track
After 5 years of concurrent operations with the Afternoon Constellation, known as the "A-Train," the PARASOL satellite is going on another orbit "track."
-
NASA's A-Train of Satellites "On Track" With Hurricane Research
NASA has several satellites that orbit the Earth one behind the other on the same track. They're called the "A-Train" and one of the things they study is tropical cyclones.