The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Less than a month after it was launched, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite returned the first image from one of its instruments – an image that, for the first time from space, unveils the internal structure and dynamics of clouds. The image here shows the vertically-resolved velocity of the cloud particles measured with the Doppler velocity capability of the EarthCARE cloud profiling radar, between points A and B shown in an image captured from geostationary orbit. The dashed line indicates the altitude of the 0°C temperature level taken from a weather prediction model. The top layer of the cloud above the 0°C line includes ice crystals and snow, with little vertical velocity. Below this line, ice and snow from the upper layer melt, forming water droplets falling as rain which has a much higher fall speed.
Read full story: A first: inner secrets of clouds revealed from space