CALIPSO IIR L3 GEWEX Cloud: Global Monthly Averages and Histograms

CALIPSO satellite data provides global distributions of cloud effective radius and water path averages and histograms on a uniform 2D spatial grid. The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission, a joint NASA and CNES project launched in 2006, collected this data using its Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) instrument to study clouds and aerosols. This Level 3 product reports statistics for ice clouds, liquid water clouds, and high ice clouds, with data averaged over one-month periods.

Use Cases

• Modeling cloud radiative effects based on reported cloud optical depth and effective emissivity.
• Analyzing global cloud microphysical properties based on effective radius and water path histograms.
• Studying the distribution of ice versus liquid water clouds based on the categorized cloud samples.
• Validating climate model cloud parameterizations against satellite-derived monthly averages.

Strengths

• Data follows the general guidance of the GEWEX Cloud Assessment, suggesting a standardized methodology.
• Product reports properties for specific cloud types (ice, liquid water, high ice), enabling targeted analysis.
• Derived from version 4 level 2 track products, indicating a processed and consistent data source.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA and the French Space Agency, CNES, via the CALIPSO satellite mission.

Collection Method

Collected by the CALIPSO Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) instrument and processed into Level 3 products.

Time Range

Data is averaged over one-month periods, starting from the mission's launch in April 2006.

Freshness

Data collection began after the satellite's launch in 2006; the temporal extent of the specific product is one month per file, but the overall dataset's end date is not specified.

Geography

Global coverage on a uniform 2-dimensional spatial grid.