EarthCARE: Simulated Satellite Data for Cloud and Aerosol Retrieval

Three simulated 6000-km satellite swaths over the Atlantic Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Pacific Ocean. The dataset contains Level-1 simulated instrument measurements and Level-2 retrieved meteorological products for clouds, aerosols, precipitation, and radiation, generated by European and Canadian scientists for the CARDINAL project. It was produced using the Canadian GEM model and European retrieval algorithms in preparation for the EarthCARE satellite launch.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking cloud property retrieval algorithms based on simulated Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) and Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID) data.
• Validating aerosol profile models using the ATLID aerosol layer descriptor (A-ALD) product.
• Testing data fusion techniques for multispectral imager (MSI) and broadband radiometer (BBR) measurements on a Joint Standard Grid.
• Analyzing simulated meteorological scenes over diverse geographic regions like the Atlantic Ocean and Rocky Mountains.

Strengths

• Contains data from three distinct 6000-km long simulated satellite swaths.
• Includes both Level-1 simulated instrument inputs and Level-2 algorithm outputs, providing a complete pipeline for testing.
• Represents the evolution of retrieval algorithms through several versions, as noted in the description.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from NetCDF/XML files after download.
• Data is synthetic, generated from model simulations, not direct satellite observations.

Provenance

Source

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, produced for the ESA-funded CARDINAL project.

Collection Method

Generated from simulated 3D scenes produced by the Canadian Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model, with products created by European retrieval algorithms.

Geography

Simulated swaths over the Atlantic Ocean (Halifax), Rocky Mountains/Baja California (Baja), and Pacific Ocean (Hawaii).