CALIPSO Lidar Level 2: 5 km Cloud and Aerosol Profiles

CALIPSO satellite data provides global vertical profiles of cloud and aerosol properties from 2006 to 2023. The lidar-based product reports particulate extinction, backscatter, and depolarization ratios at a nominal resolution of 60 meters vertically and 5 kilometers horizontally, covering altitudes from -0.5 km to 30 km. This dataset supports the study of cloud and aerosol roles in Earth's climate and radiation budget.

Use Cases

• Validating climate model cloud parameterizations based on vertical extinction profiles.
• Analyzing aerosol layer heights and optical properties for atmospheric composition studies.
• Investigating cloud-top height and phase using particulate depolarization ratios.
• Assessing long-term trends in stratospheric and tropospheric particulate backscatter.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution vertical profiles (60 m in troposphere) from a dedicated lidar instrument.
• Covers a long, continuous time series from the satellite's 2006 launch until the 2023 mission conclusion.
• Data is part of a multi-instrument satellite platform (CALIOP, IIR, WFC) enabling coincident observations.

Limitations

• Vertical resolution degrades from 60 m to 180 m in the stratosphere (above 20 km).
• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names and row counts are not provided.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026 vs 2023) across platforms create uncertainty about metadata freshness.

Provenance

Source

NASA Langley Research Center (LARC_CLOUD) and French Space Agency (CNES) via the CALIPSO satellite mission.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2006-04 to 2023-08

Freshness

2026-03-13 07:23:59.883546 (conflict with 2023-06-30 date noted)

Geography

Global