CATS-ISS: Lidar Profiles of Clouds and Aerosols, 2015-2017

CATS-ISS_L2O_D-M7.2-V3-01_05kmLay is a NASA lidar data product providing vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols and clouds from the International Space Station. The collection spans from March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017, with data derived at 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution. CATS operated at three wavelengths, orbiting between approximately 230 and 270 miles above Earth's surface.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal changes in cloud effects based on observations of the same Earth spot at different times.
• Model aerosol transport and distribution based on vertical profile measurements.
• Validate climate models based on high-resolution lidar data from the ISS.
• Study cloud formation and properties based on three-wavelength backscatter data.

Strengths

• Provides vertical profiles at three wavelengths, enabling detailed atmospheric analysis.
• Data spans over two years from March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017.
• Offers 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution for precise spatial analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1 lidar remote sensing data from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) instrument on the ISS.

Time Range

March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 08:52:05.223926; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global coverage from the International Space Station orbit.