Short Name:
CAL_LID_L2_333mCLay_Exp-Prov-V3-41

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 1/3 km Cloud Layer, Expedited V3-41

CAL_LID_L2_333mCLay_Exp-Prov-V3-41 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 1/3 km Cloud Layer, Expedited Version 3-41 data product. Data for this product was collected using the CALIPSO Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument. The version of this product was changed from 3-40 to 3-41 to account for a change in the operating system of the CALIPSO production cluster. Within the lidar Cloud Layer Product there 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 one of which is associated with a variable number of layer descriptors. The column descriptors specify the temporal and geo-physical 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., cloud and/or aerosol layers) identified within the column. For each feature within a column, a set of layer descriptors is reported. The layer descriptors provide information about the spatial and optical characteristics of a feature, such as base and top altitudes, integrated attenuated backscatter, and optical depth. 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 the international A-Train constellation for coincident Earth observations. 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.

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