NASA - SatCORPS - Focus Page

The NASA SatCORPS was founded by Dr. Patrick Minnis (retired) and colleagues at NASA Langley Research Center. The SatCORPS team is currently led by Dr. William Smith, Dr. David Painemal, Mr. Louis Nguyen, and Mr. Kristopher Bedka. The SatCORPS is focused on the application of advanced methods for interpreting satellite measurements of clouds and radiative characteristics of the Earth. The team is responsible for developing and refining globally robust techniques for retrieving cloud macrophysical and microphysical properties, surface properties and radiation parameters.

SatCORPS algorithms are implemented in a near real-time computing environment in order to disseminate low-latency products for hazardous weather diagnoses and operational weather forecasting.

The SatCORPS team participates in field experiment programs focused on basic cloud and radiation research and on providing validation data for cloud and Earth radiation budget experiments. They perform satellite and radiative transfer studies of clouds and focus extensively on cirrus, marine stratocumulus, and deep convective clouds.

Recent work includes developing new methods for improved nocturnal and multi-layered cloud properties, for detecting contrails from space and determining their impact on climate, for improving diagnoses of severe weather and aircraft icing hazards, and for determining cloud vertical and radiative flux profiles from remote sensing data.

The SatCORPS team also investigates methods for calibrating satellite imager data which is critical for deriving more accurate cloud and radiation parameters.