CALIPSO Lidar Aerosol Layer Profiles At 5 km Resolution

Data from 2006 to 2023 was collected by the CALIPSO satellite's CALIOP instrument, providing a long-term record of atmospheric aerosol layers. This Level 2 product, generated by NASA and the French Space Agency CNES, contains column and layer properties for aerosol features identified along the satellite's path. The mission concluded its science operations in August 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the vertical distribution of aerosols by correlating layer base and top altitudes with geographic location and surface type.
• Studying aerosol optical properties and loading by modeling relationships between integrated attenuated backscatter and optical depth for identified layers.
• Investigating seasonal or long-term trends in aerosol occurrence by aggregating column-level feature counts over specific time ranges and geophysical locations.
• Validating climate models by comparing simulated aerosol layer heights and optical depths against the satellite's measured layer descriptors.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage from a satellite platform in sun-synchronous orbit.
• Long temporal coverage spanning from mission launch in April 2006 through science conclusion in August 2023.
• Provides vertically resolved data on aerosol layer properties, a key advantage over column-integrated measurements.

Limitations

• Horizontal resolution of 5 km may be too coarse for studying small-scale aerosol phenomena.
• Data availability and quality are dependent on satellite instrument health and orbital changes, such as the 2018 orbit lowering.
• The passive nature of the mission means data is only available along the specific ground track of the satellite.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the French Space Agency (CNES) CALIPSO mission.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2006-04-28 to 2023-08-01

Freshness

Mission concluded; data is historical. Last metadata update was June 2023.

Geography

Global coverage along satellite ground track.