Cloud Cameras to Monitor Climate Changes for NASA

NASA’s Glory mission is to monitor climate changes that was fired into space on February 23 is equipped with two cloud cameras developed by Ball Aerospace & Technologies.

Partly customized, the products were designed for the Goddard Space Flight Center with CT-633 star tracker electronics, optics and software. They are fitted individually but will function in coordination with the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor, which records and transmits information on the properties of black carbon and other aerosols present in the atmosphere.

The cameras were earlier carried aboard the Glory on the Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission initiated in 2006. On this particular mission, once on orbit, the space craft will join CALIPSO as part of NASA's A-train formation of the Earth-observation satellites.

The mission will span across three years and contribute to the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change Program. It will assess the causes and results of global environmental and climate changes. It will also help predict these alterations.