Monthly mean vertical profiles of aerosol extinction coefficients and aerosol optical depth at 532 nm, derived from CALIOP lidar data. The dataset reports profiles below 12 km altitude, averaged across four distinct sky conditions including all-sky and cloud-free. NASA and the French CNES produced this version 4.20 product, with data generation ending on July 1, 2020.
Use Cases
- Model global aerosol optical depth (AOD) using the vertically integrated extinction coefficient profiles.
- Analyze the vertical distribution of mineral dust aerosols using the dust-only profile data.
- Compare aerosol properties under different sky conditions (All Sky, Cloud-Free, Cloudy-Sky) using the four separate data products.
- Study tropospheric aerosol-climate interactions by correlating extinction coefficient profiles with other atmospheric datasets.
Strengths
- Data is quality-screened from the version 4.20 CALIOP level 2 aerosol profile product before averaging.
- Profiles are reported on a uniform spatial grid, facilitating large-scale analysis.
- Provides separate averaged data for all aerosols and for mineral dust aerosols only.
Limitations
- Data generation for this specific version (V4-20) ended on July 1, 2020, making it temporally stale for current analysis.
- Profiles are limited to altitudes below 12 km, excluding stratospheric aerosols.
- Monthly averaging may obscure short-term aerosol events and variability.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA and the French space agency CNES via the CALIPSO satellite mission.
- Collection Method
- Derived from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument level 2 aerosol profile product.
- Time Range
- From CALIPSO's launch in April 2006 until the end of V4.20 production on July 1, 2020.
- Freshness
- Data product generation ended July 1, 2020; superseded by V4.21 for subsequent data.
- Geography
- Global coverage from the CALIPSO satellite in the A-Train constellation.