CALIPSO Lidar: 5 km Aerosol Layer Vertical Feature Mask Data

CALIPSO satellite data provides vertical feature masks for clouds and aerosols at a 5 km resolution. The dataset is produced by NASA and the French CNES from the CALIOP lidar instrument, launched in 2006 as part of the A-Train satellite constellation. It was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling climate forcing based on vertical aerosol and cloud layer data
• Studying cloud-aerosol interactions using the 5 km resolution layer information
• Validating atmospheric models with satellite-observed vertical feature masks
• Analyzing long-term trends in atmospheric composition from the A-Train constellation

Strengths

• Data originates from the CALIOP lidar instrument on a dedicated NASA-CNES satellite mission
• Provides vertical feature masks at a 5 km resolution for atmospheric layers
• Part of the coordinated A-Train satellite constellation for coincident Earth observations

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and French CNES

Collection Method

Collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on the CALIPSO satellite.

Time Range

Data collection began after the satellite launch on April 28, 2006.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 20:25:38.990923; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.