CLOUDSAT OUTCOMES

• CloudSat has revealed how often the clouds above Earth rain and snow. This is information that we did not know before, principally because many regions on Earth are not instrumented on the ground to obtain this information, such as over the oceans and over sparsely-populated land areas such as the polar regions.

• It has revealed how much ice and water are contained in clouds globally.

• It has determined how clouds heat or cool the atmosphere.

• allowed scientists to understand how often and how quickly rain develops in clouds.

• provided the first quantitative estimate of global snowfall.

• Has given scientists a deeper understanding of how pollution, volcanic emissions and other atmospheric 'aerosols' interact with clouds to affect precipitation and cloud lifetime.

• provided unique insight into the effect of cloudiness on the acceleration of polar and Greenland ice melting.