Cloud and Aerosol Lidar Profiles from the International Space Station

NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) instrument on the International Space Station collected calibrated lidar profile measurements of atmospheric aerosols and clouds. The dataset covers a 40-day period from February 10 to March 21, 2015. It was produced by the LARC_ASDC organization and provides vertical profiles at three wavelengths from an orbit between approximately 230 and 270 miles above Earth.

Use Cases

• Analyze vertical profiles of aerosol backscatter at three wavelengths to study atmospheric composition.
• Investigate diurnal changes in cloud properties by comparing observations of the same location at different times.
• Correlate lidar-derived cloud and aerosol data with ancillary meteorological fields for climate model validation.
• Map the global distribution of atmospheric layers using the instrument's near-global coverage from the ISS's 51-degree inclination orbit.

Strengths

• Provides unique diurnal observation capability from space for studying day-to-night changes.
• Data is calibrated and annotated with ancillary meteorological information.
• Collected from the International Space Station, offering a distinct orbital perspective.

Limitations

• Very short temporal coverage of only 40 days in early 2015.
• Specific row counts, column details, and data volume are unknown.
• Instrument was intended for a three-year mission but data is from its initial operational period.

Provenance

Source

NASA LARC_ASDC (Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center).

Collection Method

Data collected by the CATS lidar instrument mounted on the International Space Station.

Time Range

February 10, 2015 to March 21, 2015.

Freshness

Data collection ended on March 21, 2015; it is a historical snapshot.

Geography

Near-global coverage from the ISS orbit (~51-degree inclination).