Earth Science

Cloudsat

Orbiter · Competed · PI-led · Launched on April 28, 2006 · Completed · LCC: $201M/$359M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For Cloudsat, papers published May 1, 2006 to January 1, 2024. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For Cloudsat, papers published from 2006 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods981
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods29,489
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods80
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods128
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods3.8
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods147
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods550

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (981)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. The CALIPSO Mission

    Winker, D. M., 2010, BAMS

    889 lifetime citations

  2. CloudSat mission: Performance and early science after the first year of operation

    Stephens, Graeme L., 2008, JGRD

    598 lifetime citations

  3. Dreary state of precipitation in global models

    Stephens, Graeme L., 2010, JGRD

    587 lifetime citations

  4. Hydrometeor Detection Using Cloudsat—An Earth-Orbiting 94-GHz Cloud Radar

    Marchand, Roger, 2008, JAtOT

    443 lifetime citations

  5. Global distribution of cirrus clouds from CloudSat/Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) measurements

    Sassen, Kenneth, 2008, JGRD

    410 lifetime citations

  6. Surface Irradiances of Edition 4.0 Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Data Product

    Kato, Seiji, 2018, JCli

    396 lifetime citations

  7. A description of hydrometeor layer occurrence statistics derived from the first year of merged Cloudsat and CALIPSO data

    Mace, Gerald G., 2009, JGRD

    369 lifetime citations

  8. Combined CloudSat-CALIPSO-MODIS retrievals of the properties of ice clouds

    Delanoë, Julien, 2010, JGRD

    324 lifetime citations

  9. Cloud ice: A climate model challenge with signs and expectations of progress

    Waliser, Duane E., 2009, JGRD

    320 lifetime citations

  10. Frequency of occurrence of rain from liquid-, mixed-, and ice-phase clouds derived from A-Train satellite retrievals

    Mülmenstädt, Johannes, 2015, GeoRL

    306 lifetime citations

  11. CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar After Two Years in Orbit: Performance, Calibration, and Processing

    Tanelli, Simone, 2008, ITGRS

    293 lifetime citations

  12. Rainfall retrieval over the ocean with spaceborne W-band radar

    Haynes, John M., 2009, JGRD

    292 lifetime citations

  13. The role of cloud phase in Earth's radiation budget

    Matus, Alexander V., 2017, JGRD

    274 lifetime citations

  14. Retrieval of ice cloud microphysical parameters using the CloudSat millimeter-wave radar and temperature

    Austin, Richard T., 2009, JGRD

    273 lifetime citations

  15. Classifying clouds around the globe with the CloudSat radar: 1-year of results

    Sassen, Kenneth, 2008, GeoRL

    266 lifetime citations

  16. Improvements of top-of-atmosphere and surface irradiance computations with CALIPSO-, CloudSat-, and MODIS-derived cloud and aerosol properties

    Kato, Seiji, 2011, JGRD

    224 lifetime citations

  17. CloudSat and CALIPSO within the A-Train: Ten Years of Actively Observing the Earth System

    Stephens, Graeme, 2018, BAMS

    203 lifetime citations

  18. The CloudSat radar-lidar geometrical profile product (RL-GeoProf): Updates, improvements, and selected results

    Mace, Gerald G., 2014, JGRD

    200 lifetime citations

  19. Global hydrometeor occurrence as observed by CloudSat: Initial observations from summer 2006

    Mace, Gerald G., 2007, GeoRL

    166 lifetime citations

  20. Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment validation for cirrus cloud profiling retrieval using CloudSat radar and CALIPSO lidar

    Deng, Min, 2010, JGRD

    159 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming Cloudsat in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

(=abs:"CloudSat") AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2006-05 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (5)

  1. PARASOL in-flight calibration and performance In-flight calibration of the PARASOL instrument; names CloudSat only as an A-Train neighbour. Decision 🤖
  2. Global precipitation measurements for validating climate models Review of precipitation data sets; CloudSat appears only inside a validation-campaign name. Decision 🤖
  3. Characterization Of Surface Clutter Signal In The Presence Of Orography For A Spaceborne Conically Scanning W-Band Doppler Radar Clutter simulator for the proposed WIVERN radar; mentions CloudSat only in passing. Decision 🤖
  4. A Method for Assessing Relative Skill in Retrieving Cloud and Precipitation Properties in Next-Generation Cloud Radar and Radiometer Orbiting Observatories Design trade study for a proposed cloud observatory; uses no CloudSat data. Decision 🤖
  5. Improved hydrometeor detection near the Earth's surface by a conically scanning spaceborne W-band radar Concept study of the proposed WIVERN radar; names CloudSat only for comparison. Decision 🤖