Short Name:
CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Prov-V3-01

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 5km Cloud Profile data, Provisional V3-01

CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Prov-V3-01 data are Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 Cloud Profile data. The Lidar Level 2 Cloud Profile data product contains cloud profile data and ancillary data. The cloud profile product is produced at 5 km horizontal resolution and is written in HDF. Note that there is no atmospheric volume characterization associated with the cloud profile products. Also, the 1064 calibration scheme assumes that both the extinction and the backscatter from clouds are spectrally independent. Consistent with this assumption, extinction and backscatter profiles will be reported for clouds only at 532 nm. Additionally, it is important to note that the aerosol profile product extends upward to 30.1 km, while the cloud profile product ceases at 20.2. Therefore, users interested in polar stratospheric clouds will need to order the aerosol profile data product. The backscatter and extinction coefficients reported in the version 3.01 release of the CALIPSO profile products are provisional data products. As such, they have been compared with a limited set of independent measurements and obvious errors have been repaired since version 2.01. The version 3 products also contain numerous data quality flags and uncertainty estimates that were not available in prior releases. 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 the international A-Train 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.

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