The PARASOL Satellite Moving Off the A-Train's Track
After nearly 5 years of concurrent operations with the Afternoon Constellation, known as the "A-Train," the PARASOL satellite is going on another orbit "track." The A-Train includes a number of NASA satellites that orbit the Earth one behind the other on the same track and until this month, PARASOL has been part of that train. PARASOL is an Earth observation mission, managed by the French Space Agency (CNES). PARASOL stands for "Polarisation and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar." According to CNES, it was manoeuvred to leave its position inside the A-Train at 12:48 UTC, December 2, 2009. Read more