Satellite lidar data provides global distributions of stratospheric aerosol properties. The dataset contains monthly averaged parameters including 532nm total attenuated backscatter, extinction, attenuated scattering ratios, and aerosol optical depths. It is produced by NASA and the French CNES from the CALIPSO mission, which launched in 2006 and has ongoing data collection.
Use Cases
- Analyzing monthly trends in stratospheric aerosol optical depth across a uniform global grid.
- Comparing 'background only' aerosol conditions against 'all aerosol' conditions to isolate volcanic or anthropogenic events.
- Validating climate models using spatially gridded 532nm extinction and attenuated scattering ratio data.
- Studying the long-term impact of major events on stratospheric aerosol load using data spanning from 2006 onward.
Strengths
- Data collection is ongoing since the satellite launch in April 2006, providing a long-term record.
- Parameters are derived from version 4 level 1 and level 2 data products, indicating processed, quality-controlled inputs.
- Provides global spatial coverage on a uniform grid with monthly temporal averaging.
Limitations
- Specific row count, file size, and exact geographic resolution are not provided in the input.
- Data is temporally averaged to one month, limiting analysis of sub-monthly or diurnal events.
- The description notes specific features (clouds, PSCs) are removed for certain outputs, which may not suit studies requiring those features.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA and the French space agency CNES, via the CALIPSO satellite mission.
- Collection Method
- Collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument and derived from Level 1, Level 2, and polar stratospheric cloud data products.
- Time Range
- From April 2006 onward (ongoing).
- Freshness
- Data collection is described as ongoing; the product record was last updated in January 2022.
- Geography
- Global distributions on a uniform spatial grid.