CATS Lidar Atmospheric Profiles from the International Space Station

Lidar vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols and clouds collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System instrument on the International Space Station. The dataset provides measurements at three wavelengths from March 25, 2015, to October 29, 2017, with a 60-meter vertical and 5-kilometer horizontal resolution. It was produced by NASA's LARC ASDC to enable the study of diurnal changes in cloud and aerosol effects from space.

Use Cases

• Analyzing diurnal changes in cloud properties by comparing profiles of the same location at different times of day.
• Studying vertical distribution and transport of aerosols like dust or pollution using the three-wavelength backscatter profiles.
• Validating climate and weather models with geolocated, range-resolved atmospheric profile data at 60m vertical resolution.
• Investigating seasonal trends in cloud and aerosol layers over the ISS orbital path between 230 and 270 miles altitude.

Strengths

• Data collection spans over 2.5 years from March 2015 to October 2017.
• Provides high-resolution vertical profiles at 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution.
• Unique capability for diurnal observation from the ISS's 51-degree inclination orbit.

Limitations

• Data collection ended in October 2017, limiting analysis of recent atmospheric conditions.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the orbital path of the ISS, not global.
• The specific sample size and data volume are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

NASA LARC ASDC (Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center).

Collection Method

Data gathered by the CATS lidar remote sensing instrument on the International Space Station.

Time Range

March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017.

Freshness

Data collection is historical, with the last update on 2017-10-29.

Geography

Global coverage along the ISS orbital path between approximately 230 and 270 miles altitude at a 51-degree inclination.