CALIPSO Satellite Aerosol Layer Profiles from 2006 Onward

CALIPSO satellite data provides vertical profiles of aerosol layers in the Earth's atmosphere, collected by the CALIOP lidar instrument. This dataset is a version 4-51 product processed by NASA's LARC ASDC and CNES, with continuous global coverage from the satellite's launch in April 2006. The data includes column descriptors for location and viewing geometry, as well as layer descriptors for identified atmospheric features.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between surface type (from column descriptors) and the number of aerosol layers detected in a column.
• Model the vertical distribution of aerosols using layer property data like top and base altitude across different geographic regions.
• Study temporal trends in aerosol layer occurrence and properties over the mission's 12+ year operational period.
• Correlate aerosol layer data with surface lighting conditions and viewing geometry parameters from the column descriptors.

Strengths

• Data collection spans over 12 years from the satellite's launch in April 2006.
• Provides global spatial coverage from a satellite in sun-synchronous orbit.
• Version 4-51 represents a mature, iteratively improved data product.

Limitations

• Specific row count, file size, and complete column list are unknown.
• Primary data collection for the A-Train constellation ended in September 2018.
• Data granularity is defined at a 5 km horizontal resolution for aerosol layers.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC) and the French space agency CNES.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

From April 28, 2006, onward.

Freshness

Product metadata was last updated in June 2023.

Geography

Global coverage from satellite observations.