Space Station Lidar Profiles of Clouds and Aerosols

Over two years of calibrated lidar profile measurements were collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System instrument aboard the International Space Station from March 2015 to October 2017. The data provides vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols and clouds at three wavelengths, enabling the study of diurnal changes from space. It was processed and annotated with ancillary meteorological data by the LARC_ASDC organization.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal changes in cloud properties by comparing profiles from the same geographic location at different observation times.
• Study vertical distribution and transport of atmospheric aerosols using the three-wavelength lidar profile data.
• Correlate cloud and aerosol profiles with ancillary meteorological data annotated in the Level 1B product.
• Investigate spatial patterns of atmospheric constituents from the ISS orbit covering a 51-degree inclination.

Strengths

• Data collection spans over two years, from March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017.
• Provides unique diurnal observations of the same Earth location from the ISS orbit.
• Profiles are calibrated and annotated with ancillary meteorological data.

Limitations

• Data collection ended in October 2017, limiting analysis of recent atmospheric conditions.
• Spatial coverage is limited to the orbital path of the ISS at a 51-degree inclination.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and data formats are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

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

Time Range

March 25, 2015 through October 29, 2017.

Freshness

Data collection ended on 2017-10-29; no ongoing updates.

Geography

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