Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V4-51
CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V4-51·vV4-51·dataset

Detailed cloud profiles by altitude, laser (CALIPSO)

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Cloud Profile, V4-51
atmosphere NASA LARC_CLOUD Level 2 HDF4
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed vertical profiles of clouds, showing what's present at different altitudes along the satellite's track rather than just at the top.

How it's made. Built from the CALIOP laser instrument aboard the CALIPSO satellite, which sends light pulses down and measures the returns layer by layer; this is the Level-2 cloud profile product.

How & where you'd use it. Lets scientists see the internal vertical structure of clouds, which helps in studying how clouds and aerosols affect Earth's radiation balance and climate.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD OPTICAL DEPTH/THICKNESSATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD PROPERTIESATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD TYPESATMOSPHERE › CLOUDS › CLOUD MICROPHYSICS › CLOUD LIQUID WATER/ICE

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_05kmCPro-Standard-V4-51 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 Cloud Profile, Version 4-51 data product. Data for this product was collected using the CALIPSO Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument. 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'Etudes 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_05kmcpro-standard-v4-51_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-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.