The CATS payload is designed to provide a combination of long-term operational science from the ISS, in-space technology demonstration for future Earth Science missions, and build-to-cost, build-to-schedule development approach. CATS is not a "business as usual" project - it is specifically intended to demonstrate a low-cost, streamlined approach to developing ISS science payloads. The instrument consists of many new features compared to previous and current space-based cloud-aerosol lidars, such as a high repetition rate laser with photon counting detection, multiple beams, and a seeded laser for high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) capabilities.

CATS data are used to derive properties of cloud/aerosol layers at two wavelengths (532, 1064 nm) including:

backscatter

depolarization ratio

layer height

layer thickness

extinction

depolarization-based discrimination of particle type

These data products are used for assimilation into aerosol transport models, as complementary datasets to the NASA A-Train sensors, and to maintain continuity in the global lidar climate record.