Space Station Lidar Profiles of Clouds and Aerosols

CATS lidar instrument on the International Space Station provided the first space-based diurnal observations of atmospheric clouds and aerosols. This Level 2 Operational data product contains vertical profiles at 5 km horizontal and 60 m vertical resolution. The collection was produced by NASA's LARC_ASDC from March 25, 2015, to October 29, 2017.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal changes in cloud properties by comparing backscatter profiles at 1064 nm, 532 nm, and 355 nm wavelengths for the same geographic location.
• Track aerosol plume transport and vertical distribution using the layer top and base altitude parameters over the 2.5-year observation period.
• Validate climate model outputs by correlating derived optical depth and extinction coefficient profiles with modeled atmospheric columns.
• Study polar stratospheric clouds and tropical convection using data from the ISS's 51-degree inclination orbit covering latitudes up to ~51 degrees.

Strengths

• Unique diurnal observation capability from the ISS orbit, enabling same-location day-night comparisons.
• High-resolution vertical profiles at 60 meters and horizontal resolution of 5 kilometers.
• Data spans a 2.5-year period from March 2015 to October 2017.

Limitations

• Limited geographic coverage due to the ISS's 51-degree orbital inclination, excluding high-latitude regions above ~51 degrees.
• Dataset is static with no updates after the instrument's operational end in October 2017.
• Specific row counts and file sizes are unknown, complicating download and storage planning.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1 data captured by the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar instrument on the International Space Station.

Time Range

March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017.

Freshness

Static historical archive; final data from October 29, -2017.

Geography

Global coverage between approximately -51 and +51 degrees latitude due to ISS orbital inclination.