Cloud Physics LiDAR Data for Atlantic Coast Snowstorms

NASA's Cloud Physics LiDAR (CPL) IMPACTS dataset contains airborne lidar measurements from the ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft. The data, collected from January 15, 2020, to March 2, 2023, supports a three-year field campaign studying snowband formation and microphysics over the U.S. Atlantic Coast. It includes parameters like backscatter coefficient, depolarization ratio, layer heights, and ice water content to improve snowfall prediction models.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical cloud structure and layer types using lidar-derived layer top and base heights.
• Studying aerosol and cloud particle properties via backscatter coefficient and particulate extinction coefficient columns.
• Investigating ice crystal shape and orientation through the lidar depolarization ratio feature.
• Estimating ice water content within snowbands to understand precipitation formation mechanisms.
• Calculating atmospheric opacity for radiative transfer studies using layer and cumulative optical depth data.

Strengths

• Data spans a three-year observational campaign (2020-2023), providing multiple winter seasons for analysis.
• Contains specific, physically meaningful variables like ice water content and depolarization ratio for microphysical study.
• Collected from a NASA ER-2 aircraft, offering a high-altitude, nadir-view perspective for detailed vertical profiling.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and a complete column list are not provided across any source.
• License information is inconsistent, listed as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and null on another.
• Data is stored in HDF-5 format, which may require specialized libraries for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

NASA GHRC DAAC (Global Hydrology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center).

Collection Method

Data gathered by the Cloud Physics LiDAR (CPL) instrument onboard the NASA ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft.

Time Range

January 15,  2020 to March 2,  2023

Freshness

2026-03-13 18:29:09.551116

Geography

U.S. Atlantic Coast region, specifically areas affected by threatening snowstorms.