CATS-ISS Level 1B Day Mode 7.2 Version 3-00

CATS-ISS_L1B_D-M7.2-V3-00 is a Cloud-Aerosol Transport System Level 1B data product from NASA. It provides range-resolved vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols and clouds, collected from the International Space Station between March 25, 2015, and October 29, 2017. The instrument operated at three wavelengths, orbiting between approximately 230 and 270 miles above Earth's surface.

Use Cases

• Analyzing diurnal changes in cloud and aerosol effects based on observations of the same Earth location at different times.
• Studying vertical profiles of atmospheric particles based on lidar measurements at three wavelengths.
• Modeling cloud properties and aerosol backscatter based on data with 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution.
• Investigating atmospheric transport phenomena based on data from the ISS orbit at a 51-degree inclination.

Strengths

• Data collection spans over two and a half years, from March 25, 2015, to October 29, 2017.
• Provides vertical profiles at three wavelengths, a feature enabling detailed atmospheric analysis.
• Offers a unique space-based perspective for studying diurnal changes, as mentioned in the description.
• Derived Level 2 products have defined 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.
• Data is from a specific, concluded mission (2015-2017) and may not reflect current atmospheric conditions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar instrument aboard the International Space Station.

Time Range

March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 05:51:36.240707; freshness should be verified

Geography

Global coverage from ISS orbit between ~230 and ~270 miles altitude at 51-degree inclination.