CATS ISS Lidar Atmospheric Profiles at 5 km Horizontal Resolution

March 25, 2015 to October 29, 2017 is the coverage period for this dataset. It contains Level 2 Operational Night Mode geophysical parameters derived from Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar instrument measurements aboard the International Space Station. The data provides vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds at three wavelengths with 60m vertical and 5km horizontal resolution.

Use Cases

• Analyze diurnal cloud changes by comparing vertical profile data from the same location at different overpass times.
• Study aerosol transport and layer heights using the three-wavelength backscatter and extinction profiles.
• Validate climate and weather models with the 60m vertical resolution geophysical parameters for atmospheric structure.
• Investigate spatial patterns of cloud and aerosol effects from the ISS orbit's unique 51-degree inclination coverage.

Strengths

• Provides nearly three years of continuous lidar profile measurements from March 2015 to October 2017.
• Offers high-resolution vertical profiles at 60m and horizontal resolution at 5km.
• First space-based lidar to enable diurnal change studies from the ISS orbit.

Limitations

• Data collection ended in 2017, limiting analysis to that historical period.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in the description.
• Covers only the specific orbital path of the ISS, not global coverage at all longitudes simultaneously.

Provenance

Source

Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) instrument on the International Space Station, processed by LARC_ASDC.

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1 lidar remote sensing data providing range-resolved profile measurements.

Time Range

2015-03-25 to 2017-10-29

Freshness

Data collection ended on 2017-10-29; the dataset is historical.

Geography

Global coverage along the ISS orbital path (~230-270 miles altitude, 51-degree inclination).