CALIPSO Data and Information

Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (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 formation with five other satellites in the international "A-Train" (PDF) constellation for coincident Earth observations. The CALIPSO satellite comprises three instruments, the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), the Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and the Wide Field Camera (WFC). CALIPSO is a joint U.S. (NASA) and French (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales-CNES) satellite mission with an expected 3 year lifetime.

CALIPSO is part of the A-Train Constellation of satellites and has been making global measurements of aerosols and clouds since June 13, 2006. One of the satellite's first lidar images released on July 24, 2006, gives a unique view of the atmosphere. (Read full text)	Instrument Updates: The CALIPSO Laser Switch was completed and normal operations resumed on March 12, 2009. Data Updates: There are no CALIPSO data products for February 17 through March 11, 2009. During this time the CALIPSO Laser Switch Operations were performed.
	November 2009: Lidar Level 1B Version 3.01 includes corrections to the 532 nm and 1064 nm extinction, backscatter, and ozone cross-sections that were applied in the recent release of Lidar Level 1B Version 3.00. The data were reprocessed using the corrected values and are being released as Version 3.01. The Data Quality Statements contain detailed information for the release.

Available Data Sets: Current Data Sets | Previously Released Data Sets

NOTE: The data in each data set are global, but are produced in files by half orbit, with the day portion of an orbit in one file and the night portion of the orbit in another.

Please refer to CALIPSO Previously Released Data Sets if you need older versions of these data.