CALIPSO Satellite Wide Field Camera Calibrated Radiance Data

CALIPSO's Wide Field Camera Level 1B data provides calibrated radiance and bidirectional reflectance measurements registered to a 1-kilometer Earth grid. This dataset is produced by NASA and the French space agency CNES from the CALIPSO satellite, which has been operational since its launch in April 2006. The data is specifically gridded to match the footprint of the onboard Imaging Infrared Radiometer to aid joint retrievals.

Use Cases

• Analyze calibrated radiance values to characterize daytime cloud optical properties and albedo.
• Use bidirectional reflectance data registered to the IIR grid for validating or informing infrared radiometer retrievals.
• Study aerosol and cloud spatial distributions by examining radiance patterns across the 1 km Earth grid.
• Investigate diurnal climate effects by combining this daytime-only WFC data with nighttime observations from other CALIPSO instruments.

Strengths

• Data is registered to a consistent 1-kilometer Earth-based grid centered on the satellite ground track.
• Version 3.02 represents a stable processing baseline with no algorithm changes from the previous version.
• Data is collected as part of the international A-Train constellation, enabling coincident observations with other satellites.

Limitations

• The Wide Field Camera acquires science data only during daylight portions of orbits, creating a temporal sampling bias.
• Specific metrics on data volume, temporal coverage since 2006, and spatial resolution beyond the 1 km grid are not provided.
• The description notes very minor changes between versions due to compiler differences, indicating potential for subtle artifacts.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC), a joint mission with the French CNES.

Collection Method

Data is collected by the Wide Field Camera instrument aboard the CALIPSO satellite and processed to Level 1B.

Time Range

Data collection began after the CALIPSO satellite launch on April 28, 2006; specific end date is not provided.

Geography

Global coverage along the satellite's ground track, as part of the sun-synchronous A-Train constellation.