CALIPSO Raw Lidar Backscatter Profiles from PIVB Episodes

CALIPSO's CALIOP instrument collected raw, unprocessed backscatter profiles at 15-meter vertical resolution across three laser channels. These Payload Instrument Verification and Block (PIVB) data packets were acquired intermittently from August 2016 to June 2023. The dataset was produced by NASA and the French Space Agency (CNES) as part of the CALIPSO mission to study clouds and aerosols.

Use Cases

• Analyze raw 532 nm parallel, 532 nm perpendicular, and 1064 nm backscatter signals to characterize instrument response and noise before on-board averaging.
• Use the time and position information for each laser pulse to reconstruct ephemeris data for specific PIVB acquisition episodes.
• Compare high and low gain channel profiles from 15 consecutive laser pulses to study signal saturation and dynamic range.
• Examine the array of on-board measurement altitudes to verify the 15-meter vertical resolution of the raw profiles.
• Study associated instrument engineering data to diagnose sensor health or anomalies during specific mission intervals.

Strengths

• Data spans nearly 7 years from August 2016 to June 2023.
• Provides high-resolution 15-meter vertical profiles of raw backscatter.
• Contains data for three distinct spectral/polarization channels (532 nm parallel, 532 nm perpendicular, 1064 nm).

Limitations

• Data was acquired only episodically, not as part of routine science capture.
• Profiles are not altitude-registered, geolocated, range-corrected, or calibrated.
• The specific number of data packets or rows is not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) mission, a partnership with CNES.

Collection Method

Collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument during commanded Payload Instrument Verification and Block (PIVB) episodes.

Time Range

August 2016 to June 2023

Freshness

Data collection concluded in June 2023; the record is static.

Geography

Global coverage along the satellite's orbital track.