Opportunities for NRL WARLOC radar validation and calibration of NASA Earth Observing Space Missions

The NRL WARLOC radar is a high average power, coherent W-band (94 GHz) radar now operating at the NRL Chesapeake Bay Detachment (CBD) site in Maryland. Developed by the Navy as a research radar for imaging and tracking applications, WARLOC also brings unprecedented sensitivity to the measurement of cloud parameters (including phase, morphology, and particle size and motion) at spatial resolutions unparalleled by contemporary radar systems. The NASA CloudSat satellite, planned for launch in early 2005, features a nadir pointing non-coherent W-band cloud profiling radar (CPR). As part of the "A-Train" constellation (a series of five low-earth-orbiting satellites in formation flight with the EOS Aqua platform), CloudSat provides the first space-based cloud vertical profile information on a global scale. This paper discusses opportunities for the use of WARLOC for atmospheric physics studies in general, and potential for quantifying the instrument performance and science limitations of the CloudSat CPR.