CALIPSO Satellite Lidar Profiles of Clouds and Aerosols

CALIPSO satellite data provides calibrated, geolocated single-shot lidar profiles of Earth's atmosphere. The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument collected these Level 1B measurements. Version 4-51 data was produced by the LARC_ASDC organization, with a product release date noted in June 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical profiles of 532 nm attenuated backscatter to map cloud layer heights and thickness.
• Studying aerosol composition and type by examining the 532 nm depolarization ratio data.
• Correlating 1064 nm attenuated backscatter signals with particle size distributions for different atmospheric phenomena.
• Validating climate and weather models by comparing simulated atmospheric profiles with the geolocated single-shot lidar measurements.
• Investigating diurnal cycles by combining half-orbit data from consecutive day and night passes over the same region.

Strengths

• Provides single-shot lidar profiles at the instrument's highest native resolution.
• Contains three primary calibrated measurements: 532 nm backscatter, 1064 nm backscatter, and 532 nm depolarization ratio.
• Data product is versioned (V4-51), indicating a defined processing and quality control pipeline.

Limitations

• The sample size and specific temporal coverage for the dataset are not provided.
• Data is limited to 'nominal science mode measurements', potentially excluding calibration or special event data.
• The product contains only a half orbit (day or night) per file, requiring combination for full diurnal analysis.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) mission, processed by the LARC_ASDC.

Collection Method

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

Freshness

Product data was last updated in June 2023.

Geography

Global coverage along the satellite's orbital path.