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Full catalog/CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Standard-V4-51
CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Standard-V4-51·vV4-51·dataset

Where haze, dust and smoke layers sit (CALIPSO, 5 km, V4)

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 5 km Aerosol Layer Data, V4-51
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 2 HDF4
In plain English

What it measures. A vertical profile of where haze, dust, and smoke layers sit in the atmosphere along the satellite's track, in 5-kilometer slices. It reports each aerosol layer's location, altitude, and optical characteristics.

How it's made. Collected by the CALIPSO satellite's laser instrument (CALIOP), which sends down light pulses and reads the echoes to detect aerosol layers; this is a processed Level 2 product.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study how airborne particles affect Earth's climate and radiation balance, and to track where dust and smoke travel through the atmosphere.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › AEROSOL BACKSCATTERATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › DUST/ASH/SMOKE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2006-06-12 → 2023-06-30
  • Measured byCALIPSO (CALIOP)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • 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_LID_L2_05kmALay-Standard-V4-51 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 5 km Aerosol Layer Data, Version 4-51 data product. This data product was collected using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument. Within this layer product are two general classes of data: Column Properties (including position data and viewing geometry) and Layer Properties. The lidar layer products consist of a sequence of column descriptors, each associated with a variable number of layer descriptors. The column descriptors specify the temporal and geophysical location of the column of the atmosphere through which a given lidar pulse travels. Also included in the column descriptors are indicators of surface lighting conditions, information about the surface type, and the number of features (e.g., aerosol layers) identified within the column. The CALIPSO satellite comprises three instruments: CALIOP, Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and Wide Field Camera (WFC). CALIPSO is a joint satellite mission between NASA and the French Agency CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales). CALIPSO was launched on April 28, 2006, to study the impact of clouds and aerosols on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. From June 13, 2006, to September 13, 2018, CALIPSO was part of the A-Train constellation for coincident Earth Observations. After September 13, 2018, the satellite was lowered from 705 to 688 km to resume flying in formation with CloudSat, called the C-Train.

Get the data

cal_lid_l2_05kmalay-standard-v4-51_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Standard-V4-51",
    version="V4-51",
    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.