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Full catalog/ATL09QL
ATL09QL·v007·dataset

Quick-look profiles of clouds and haze layers (ICESat-2)

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Calibrated Backscatter Profiles and Atmospheric Layer Characteristics Quick Look V007
atmosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 active HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. Quick-look profiles of clouds and haze layers in the atmosphere, including how much light bounces back, layer heights, and blowing snow. These are preliminary results meant for fast availability.

How it's made. Derived from the ATLAS laser instrument aboard NASA's ICESat-2 satellite, using the same methods as the final product but released early; once final files appear, these quick-look versions are removed.

How & where you'd use it. Lets users get timely information on cloud and aerosol layers, with the understanding that the final, fully processed version is the authoritative one.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › LIDAR › LIDAR BACKSCATTER

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-11-25 → ongoing
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -88, 180, 88
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

ATL09QL is the quick look version of ATL09 and is based on the same algorithms that generate the ATL09 final data products. Once final ATL09 files are available, the corresponding ATL09QL files are removed. ATL09QL contains calibrated, attenuated backscatter profiles (CAB), layer-integrated attenuated backscatter, blowing snow, and other parameters including cloud and aerosol layer height and atmospheric characteristics. The data were acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the ICESat-2 observatory.

Get the data

atl09ql_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ATL09QL",
    version="007",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.