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 satellite mission between NASA and the French Agency, CNES.

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)

December 2011: New CALIPSO Lidar Level 3 Aerosol Profile Product. The lidar level 3 aerosol data product reports monthly mean profiles of aerosol optical properties on a uniform spatial grid. This is a tropospheric product that reports averaged values at altitudes below 12km. All level 3 parameters are derived from the version 3 CALIOP level 2 aerosol profile product and are quality screened prior to averaging. Four types of level 3 data files are generated each month depending on sky condition and temporal coverage and are separated into day/night segments. Each monthly product set will be available around the middle of the following month. Version 3.02 represents a transition of the Lidar, IIR, and WFC processing and browse code to a new cluster computing system. No algorithm changes were introduced and very minor changes were observed between V 3.01 and V 3.02 as a result of the compiler and computer architecture differences. Version 3.02 is released in a forward processing mode beginning November 1, 2011. May 2011: IIR Level 2 Track and Swath Beta version 3.01 includes significant enhancements to the microphysical parameters, new metadata parameters and corrections to several minor software bugs. A new near-real time Lidar Level 1.5 expedited product is now available that contains cloud-cleared and spatially averaged profiles of attenuated backscatter and aerosol extinction coefficients derived from Lidar Level 1 and Level 2 expedited products. Since it is intended for near-real time applications, Level 1.5 expedited data is generated in forward processing and is accessible via ftp by subscription only. Please contact the CALIPSO Principal Investigator David Winker and CALIPSO Data Manager Pat Lucker for access to this data product.

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.