CALIPSO Monthly Global Cloud Occurrence Grids

CALIPSO's CALIOP instrument provided global cloud distribution data on a uniform spatial grid with a monthly temporal average. This Level 3 product was generated from Level 2 data by NASA and CNES's LARC_CLOUD team, with collection ending in December 2016 due to instrument degradation. The mission launched in 2006 to study clouds and aerosols within the A-Train satellite constellation.

Use Cases

• Analyze monthly cloud fraction values across the global spatial grid to model cloud-climate feedback mechanisms.
• Validate climate model outputs by comparing simulated cloud occurrence against the satellite-observed gridded data.
• Study seasonal and regional variations in cloud cover using the time-series of monthly averaged geospatial maps.
• Investigate the impact of the CALIOP laser energy degradation post-September 2016 on derived cloud occurrence trends.

Strengths

• Data provides a global, uniform spatial grid of cloud distributions.
• Derived from the CALIOP instrument, a dedicated space-based lidar for atmospheric profiling.
• Offers a continuous time-series from 2006 until collection ended in December 2016.

Limitations

• Data generation ceased in December 2016 due to instrument degradation, limiting temporal coverage.
• Product quality was negatively impacted by laser energy degradation starting in September 2016.
• Requires updated Level 2 data and algorithm changes for a new release, indicating the current version is outdated.

Provenance

Source

NASA and CNES joint CALIPSO mission, processed by the LARC_CLOUD organization.

Collection Method

Data collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument, averaged from Level 2 products to a monthly Level 3 grid.

Time Range

From mission launch in April 2006 until December 2016.

Freshness

Data collection ended in 2016; product is not actively updated.

Geography

Global coverage on a uniform spatial grid.