ASDC | CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V5-00

CALIPSO Level 2

Entry Title: CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Cloud Profile, V5-00

Entry ID: CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V5-00

Aerosols Clouds

Description

CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V5-00 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 5 km Cloud Profile data product. This data product was collected using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument.

This cloud profile product reports vertical profiles of particulate extinction and backscatter, as well as additional information (e.g. particulate depolarization ratios) derived from these fundamental measurements. The cloud profile products are reported at a uniform spatial resolution of 60 m vertically and 5 km horizontally, over a nominal altitude range from 30 km to -0.5 km. Due to constraints imposed by the on-board data averaging scheme, the vertical resolution of the cloud profile data varies as a function of altitude. In the tropospheric region between 20 km to -0.5 km, the cloud profile products are reported at a resolution of 60 m vertically, and in the stratospheric region (above20-km), the cloud profile products are reported at a resolution of 180 m vertically.

CALIPSO was a partnership between NASA and the French Space Agency, CNES.

CALIPSO was launched on April 28, 2006 to study the many roles played by clouds and aerosols in Earth’s climate and weather. It flew in the international A-Train constellation for coincident Earth observations from launch until September 13, 2018, when CALIPSO began lowering its orbit from 705 km to 688 km(428 miles) above the Earth to resume formation flying with CloudSat as part of the “C-Train”. The CALIPSO satellite carried three remote sensing instruments: the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), the Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and the Wide Field-of-View Camera (WFC). By mutual agreement between NASA and CNES, the CALIPSO science mission concluded on August 1, 2023.

DOI

10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V5-00

Citation Styles for this Dataset

Resources and Documentation

Earthdata Forum

PROJECT HOME PAGE

CALIPSO Project Home Page

French (CNES) CALIPSO Home Page

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DATA CITATION GUIDELINES

How to cite ASDC data

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

CALIPSO Data Description and Quality Summary – CALIOP Level 2 Profile

PRODUCT USAGE

CALIPSO Data Products Catalog - Release 5.00

USER'S GUIDE

From GCMD Science Keywords:

AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESS
AEROSOL BACKSCATTER
AEROSOL EXTINCTION
CLOUD TYPES
LIDAR DEPOLARIZATION RATIO
AEROSOLS

Backscatter
Depolarization Ratio
Extinction
Optical Depth
Ice Water Content

Data Distribution

File Format(s):

HDF4

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Spatial Information

Spatial Coverage: (S: -90, N: 90), (W: -180, E: 180)
Spatial Coverage Type: Horizontal Vertical
Coordinate System: Cartesian
Granule Spatial Representation: Cartesian

Locations

GLOBAL

Temporal Information

Temporal Coverage: 2006-06-12 - 2023-07-01

Platforms

Earth Observation Satellites

CALIPSO

Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations

CALIOP

Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization

Metadata Dates

Created on 2025-05-20