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Full catalog/CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V5-00
CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V5-00·vV5-00·dataset

Laser beams probing clouds and haze (CALIPSO)

CALIPSO Lidar Level 1B profile data, V5-00
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 1B HDF4netCDF-3
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed vertical profiles of how laser light bounces back from clouds and airborne particles (aerosols like dust, smoke, and haze), at the finest resolution the instrument offers.

How it's made. Collected by the CALIOP laser instrument on the CALIPSO satellite, calibrated and tagged with location, covering half an orbit (a day or night pass) per file.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study the layered structure of clouds and aerosols and their roles in climate and weather; the mission ran from 2006 to 2023.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › ALBEDOATMOSPHERE › CLOUDSSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › LIDAR › LIDAR BACKSCATTERATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION › RADIATIVE FLUXATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL EXTINCTIONATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL BACKSCATTERATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-06-12 → 2023-06-30
  • Measured byCALIPSO (CALIOP)
  • Processing levelLevel 1B
  • FormatsHDF4, netCDF-3
  • 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_LID_L1-Standard-V5-00 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 1B profile data product. This data product was collected using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization(CALIOP) instrument. The CALIOP Level 1B data product contains a half orbit (day or night) of calibrated and geolocated single-shot (highest resolution) lidar profiles, including 532 nm and1064 nm attenuated backscatter and depolarization ratio at 532 nm. 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.

Get the data

cal_lid_l1-standard-v5-00_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V5-00",
    version="V5-00",
    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.