Launched in 2006, CloudSat was the first satellite to use an advanced cloud-profiling radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure, providing a completely new observational capability from space. The mission furnished data that evaluated and improved the way clouds and precipitation are represented in global models, contributing to better predictions of clouds and their role in climate change. CloudSat orbited in the A-Train -- six Earth-monitoring satellites that fly in a coordinated orbit to advance our understanding of how Earth functions as a system -- until February 2018 and operated in a lower orbit until its science mission ended.