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Full catalog/CAL_IIR_L3_GEWEX_Cloud-Standard-V1-00
CAL_IIR_L3_GEWEX_Cloud-Standard-V1-00·vV1-00·dataset

Global cloud properties for climate study (CALIPSO infrared)

CALIPSO IIR Lidar Level 3 Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud, Standard V1-00
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 3 HDF4
In plain English

What it measures. Worldwide maps of cloud properties, including the size of cloud droplets and ice crystals, how much water clouds hold, cloud temperature, and how thick clouds are, separated into ice clouds, liquid water clouds, and high ice clouds.

How it's made. Built from a month's worth of readings by the Imaging Infrared Radiometer on the CALIPSO satellite, averaged onto a tidy global grid following the international GEWEX cloud-study guidelines.

How & where you'd use it. Climate scientists use these gridded summaries to understand the role clouds play in Earth's energy and water balance and to compare clouds across different regions and seasons.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD RADIATIVE TRANSFER › CLOUD EMISSIVITYATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIES › CLOUD AMOUNT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-06-01 → 2016-12-31
  • Measured byCALIPSO (IIR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • FormatsHDF4
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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

CAL_IIR_L3_GEWEX_Cloud-Standard-V1-00 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) IIR Level 3 Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud, Standard Version 1-00 data product. Data for this product was collected using the CALIPSO Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR) instrument. This product reports global distributions of IIR cloud effective radius, water path averages, and histograms on a uniform 2-dimensional (2D) spatial grid. This product is designed to follow the general guidance of the GEWEX Cloud Assessment. Cloud amount, radiative temperature, effective emissivity, and optical depth characterize the cloud samples for which IIR microphysical retrievals are reported. Cloud properties are reported for ice clouds, liquid water clouds, and high ice clouds of layer pressure lower than 440 hPa. All level 3 parameters are derived from the IIR version 4 level 2 track products, with the temporal extent averaging one month. CALIPSO was launched on April 28, 2006, to study the impact of clouds and aerosols on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. It flies in the international A-Train constellation for coincident Earth observations. The CALIPSO satellite comprises three instruments: The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and Wide Field Camera (WFC). CALIPSO is a joint satellite mission between NASA and the French Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

Get the data

cal_iir_l3_gewex_cloud-standard-v1-00_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CAL_IIR_L3_GEWEX_Cloud-Standard-V1-00",
    version="V1-00",
    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 LARC_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.