09-10-2018: CALIPSO Lowering Orbit

On September 13, 2018, CALIPSO will begin lowering its orbit from 705 km to 688 km to resume formation with CloudSat. The sequence of maneuvers is expected to take a week and the payload instruments will be turned off (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and Wide Field Camera (WFC)). Normal science operations anticipated to beging in late September with public data availability around October 10, 2018.

08-15-2018: CALIPSO LIDAR L3 Stratospheric Aerosol Profile Version 1.00 Product Release

The CALIPSO mission team, in collaboration with the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center and HYGEOS/AERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center, announces the release of a new CALIOP Level 3 Stratospheric Aerosol Profile Product (V1.00).

• CAL_LID_L3_Stratospheric_APro-Standard-V1-00

The CALIOP Level 3 Stratospheric Aerosol Profile monthly product reports global distributions of 532 nm total attenuated backscatter coefficients, attenuated scattering ratios, aerosol extinction coefficients, and stratospheric aerosol optical depths on a uniform three-dimensional spatial grid (5° latitude x 20° longitude x 900 m vertically). All level 3 parameters are derived from the nighttime CALIPSO version 4 level 1 and level 2 5-km merged layer products and the version 1.x level 2 polar stratospheric cloud data products.

The monthly product is available beginning with data from June 13, 2006 through December 31, 2016.

Information about this new data product including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relavant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following ASDC link:
https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table.

An in-depth data quality summary and description can be found in the following CALIPSO links:
https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/resources/calipso_users_guide/qs/cal_lid_l3_stratospheric_apro_v1-00.php
https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/resources/calipso_users_guide/data_summaries/l3/lid_l3_stratospheric_apro_v1-00_v01_desc.php

06-20-2018: CALIPSO - ONGOING...

CALIOP is experiencing an elevated frequency of low energy laser shots within and near the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region which has degraded the science quality of affected profiles since September 2016. Please see the Low Laser Energy Advisory page for further information and guidance for identifying affected profiles.

06-12-2018: CALIPSO LIDAR L3 Ice Cloud Version 1.00 Product Release

The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with the CALIPSO mission team announces the release of a new CALIOP Level 3 Ice Cloud Product.

• CAL_LID_L3_Ice_Cloud-Standard-V1-00

The CALIOP Level 3 Ice Cloud monthly product reports global distributions of ice cloud extinction coefficients and ice water content histograms on a uniform spatial grid. All parameters are derived from the latest version 4 CALIOP Level 2 5 km cloud profile product.

The monthly product is available from June 13, 2006 through December 31, 2016.

Information about this new data product including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relevant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following ASDC link:
https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table.

An in-depth data quality summary and description can be found in the following CALIPSO links:
https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/resources/calipso_users_guide/qs/cal_lid_l3_ice_cloud_v1-00.php
https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/resources/calipso_users_guide/data_summaries/l3/lid_l3_ice_cloud_v1-00_v01_desc.php

10-11-2017: CALIPSO LIDAR L1 Version 4.00 Product Retirement

The CALIPSO mission announces that as of October 11, 2017, the Version 4.00 Lidar Level 1 product will no longer be publicly available from the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center. This dataset, which spans from June 13, 2006 to May 31, 2015, was replaced by the recent Version 4.10 Lidar Level 1 data. CALIPSO users are strongly encouraged to use this newer version of the Lidar Level 1 data set, which is now available on all currently existing standard order tools as well as the CALIPSO Search/Sub-setter application.

07-12-2017: The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with the CALIPSO mission announces the release of the following data product:

• CAL_IIR_L1-Standard-V2-00

Version 2.00 of the IIR Level 1 product is the first major revision since the initial release in 2006. The calibration procedure has been adjusted to reduce known small seasonal calibration biases in the Northern Hemisphere, which were caused by thermal drifts synchronized with the elapsed time since the night-to-day transition.

The product is available from June 13, 2006 to current. The Version 1 standard and expedited data products will continue to be generated and provided to the public. There is no expedited version of the V2.00 IIR Level 1 planned for this release.

Information about this data product, including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relevant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following ASDC link: https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table.

06-09-2017: CALIOP is experiencing an elevated frequency of low energy laser shots within and near the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region which has degraded the science quality of affected profiles since late May 2017. The frequency of low energy laser shots will increase within the SAA and surrounding regions during the remainder of lifetime of the current laser. Quality of level 2 data products is also degraded within this region since they are derived from level 1B data. Low energy profiles and level 2 data derived from them should not be used for scientific analyses. Low energy laser shots are indicated by the “QC_Flag” SDS within the lidar level 1B data product. The 5^th bit of the QC_Flag should be queried to identify affected profiles.

12-14-2016: A number of Version 3 CALIPSO science data products rely on the GEOS 5 FP-IT meteorological data stream of near-real-time assimilation products provided by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). GMAO is transitioning the FP-IT data product from Version 5.9.1 to 5.12.4, and thus those standard and expedited CALIPSO products that depend on these ancillary data will likewise undergo a minor version increase; effective December 1st, 2016 for standard and December 12th, 2016 for expedited. However, the science algorithms used to produce the CALIPSO data files will not change. The current Lidar Level 1, Lidar Level 1.5, and Lidar Level 2 products will transition from Version 3.30 to Version 3.40. The IIR Level 2 will also switch from Version 3.30 to Version 3.40, and the Lidar Level 2 Polar Stratospheric Mask will change from Version 1.00 to Version 1.10. Finally, the Lidar Level 3 Aerosol products will change from Version 3.00 to Version 3.10. Please note that this change will not impact recently released CALIPSO Version 4.10 data products, as they use a different meteorological data set (MERRA-2).

The following data sets using this updated version of the GMAO data are:

• CAL_LID_L1_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_01kmCLay_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCLay_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_333mCLay_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_VFM_Exp-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L15_Exp-Beta-V3-40
• CAL_IIR_L2_Track_Exp-Beta-V3-40
• CAL_IIR_L2_Swath_Exp-Beta-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L1-ValStage1-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_01kmCLay-ValStage1-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCLay-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Prov-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_333mCLay-ValStage1-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_VFM-ValStage1-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L2_PSCMask-Prov-V1-10
• CAL_IIR_L2_Track-Beta-V3-40
• CAL_IIR_L2_Swath-Beta-V3-40
• CAL_LID_L3_APro_AllSky-Standard-V3-10
• CAL_LID_L3_APro_CloudFree-Standard-V3-10
• CAL_LID_L3_APro_CloudySkyTransparent-Standard-V3-10
• CAL_LID_L3_APro_CloudySkyOpaque-Standard-V3-10

11-08-2016: CALIPSO - Lidar Levels 1 and 2 Version 4.10 Data Available

The CALIPSO mission announces the release of new versions of its standard Level 1 and Level 2 lidar data products. These products are available through the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center and include the following:
Version 4.10 Lidar Level 1 Products

• CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V4-10

• CAL_LID_L2_01kmCLay-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_333mMLay-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmMLay-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmALay-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCLay-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_05kmCPro-Standard-V4-10
• CAL_LID_L2_VFM-Standard-V4-10

The V4.10 CALIOP Level 2 data products are the first major revision to the Level 2 product suite since May 2010. The extensive improvements made in this new release correct numerous artifacts and significantly enhance the content and quality of the science data. In addition to the substantial updates made to all existing Level 2 products, V4.10 introduces a new merged layer product that reports the spatial and optical properties of cloud and aerosol layers in a single file.

The data processing algorithms and code used to generate the updated V4.10 CALIOP Level 1 data product are unchanged from V4.00. The only differences between the two versions are the essential ancillary data sets. The GTOPO30 Digital Elevation Model (DEM) used in V4.00 has been replaced by a substantially more accurate DEM developed by the CloudSat project. Likewise, the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) Forward Processing for Instrument Team (FP-IT) meteorological forecast product has been replaced with the higher quality Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research (MERRA-2) reanalysis product. Use of the MERRA-2 data has been shown to yield more accurate and reliable CALIOP calibration coefficients.

The version 3.x (3.01, 3.02 and 3.30) CALIOP Level 1 and Level 2 data products will continue to be generated and made publically available, with version 4.10 running in parallel. Unlike version 3.x, which is released continuously following 2-3 day latency from downlink, new releases of the version 4.10 Level 1 and Level 2 product will have a latency of several weeks. This change in latency is a direct response to now using the MERRA-2 meteorological data. Generation and distribution of the standard version 3.x will continue until release of an updated version of the IIR Level 2 product, at which point the standard will no longer be supported. Expedited and quick-look datasets, which continue to rely on the GMAO FP-IT, will remain at version 3.x.

The product is available beginning with data from June 13, 2006 (following CALIOP first light), and as of this announcement, through December 31, 2008. Remaining data will be available as it is produced.

Information about the data products including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relevant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following ASDC links: https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table.

In-depth overviews for the products can be found in the following CALIPSO link to the data quality summaries: VIEW SUMMARIES.

10-15-2015: New CALIPSO Lidar Level 3 Version 3.00 Data Available

Version 3.00 of the CALIOP Level 3 Aerosol Profile product contains several improvements to the initial beta release including refined sky conditions, reduced biases in single-species averages and corrected mean aerosol optical depth calculations.

The monthly products is available beginning with data from June 2006 (following CALIOP first light on June 13, 2006) through current. The Version 1.00 and 1.30 CALIOP Level 3 Aerosol Profile data products will no longer be generated beyond September 2015.

Information about these data products including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relevant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following ASDC link: https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table. In-depth overviews of the improvements can be found in the following CALIPSO link to the data quality summaries: View Overviews.

05-15-2015: CALIPSO - Nine Years In Orbit

On April 28, 2006, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), satellite was launched and joined the NASA’s “A-Train” constellation. To date, the CALIPSO satellite has been in orbit for nine years. Data collected by the CALPSO satellite can be obtained from the Atmospheric Science Data Center at https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov.

11-14-2014: New CALIPSO Lidar Level 1 Version 4.00 Available

An updated version of the CALIOP Level 1 data product substantially improves both the 532nm and 1064nm calibration accuracies. Changes to the calibration techniques were firmly rooted by a thoroughly documented and peer-reviewed approach.

Information about the CALIPSO CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V4-00 product including data availability, user documentation and quality statements, relevant links, sample read software, and tools for working with the data, etc. can be found at the following Atmospheric Science Data Center link: https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/cal_lid_l1-standard-v4-00_table. In-depth overviews of the calibration improvements can be found in the following CALIPSO link to the data quality summaries.

09-23-2014: New CALIPSO KML/KMZ Expedited Data Available

New Google Earth images of CALIPSO’s Expedited Lidar Level 1 Total_Attenuated_Backscatter_532 data available to view profiles of clouds and aerosols over the globe. These KMZ files are accessible through the Expedited Browse Image web page and can be displayed using the Google Earth Tool

05-06-2014: CALIPSO - Eight Years In Orbit

NASA.gov highlights the Eighth Anniversary of CALIPSO in orbit. View Article.

10-29-2013: New CALIPSO Data Sets Released

Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with the CALIPSO mission team announces the forward release of the following standard data sets:

IIR_L2_Track_Exp-Beta-V3-30
IIR_L2_Swath_Exp-Beta-V3-30
IIR_L2_Track-Beta-V3-30
IIR_L2_Swath-Beta-V3-30

These version 3.30 products incorporates an update to the Global Modeling Assimilation Office (GMAO) meteorological data, switching now to GMAO 5.9.1. The version 3.30 products also use enhanced snow and ice data derived from the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA). The updated versions of the data sets are available beginning with the data date March 1, 2013. The expedited products are only available for 30 days from the data date, at which time the standard release products will be available.

04-19-2013: New CALIPSO Data Sets Released

Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center in collaboration with the CALIPSO mission team announces the forward release of the following standard data sets:

LID_L1-ValStage1-V3-30
LID_L2_01kmCLay-ValStage1-V3-30
LID_L2_05kmALay-Prov-V3-30
LID_L2_05kmAPro-Prov-V3-30
LID_L2_05kmCLay-Prov-V3-30
LID_L2_05kmCPro-Prov-V3-30
LID_L2_333mCLay-ValStage1-V3-30
LID_L2_VFM-ValStage1-V3-30
LID_L3_APro_AllSky-Beta-V1-30
LID_L3_APro_Combined-Beta-V1-30

These new CALIPSO Lidar Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 data products are available, beginning with data date March 1, 2013. This new Version 3.3 incorporates the updated GMAO Forward Processing - Instrument Teams (FP-IT) meteorological data, and the enhanced Air Force Weather Authority (AFWA) Snow and Ice Data Set, as ancillary inputs to the production of these data sets.

04-09-2013: CALIPSO Data Unavailable

Standard CALIPSO data products are currently being held pending verification of the new GMAO V5.9.1 meteorological data products and an enhanced Snow and Ice data set from the Air Force Weather Authority (AFWA). Once the data products are approved for release, the version numbers for the Standard Lidar and the IIR Level 2 products will increase from V3.02 to V3.3.

01-30-2013: CALIPSO Expedited Data Sets Released

New Expedited CALIPSO Lidar and Infrared Imaging Radiometer (IIR) Level 1 and Level 2, and Wide Field-of-View Camera (WFC) Level 1 data products are now available to support near real-time weather forecasting operations and measurement field campaigns. These daily products have a processing latency of less than 8 hours from the time they are received at the ground station. They use the most current attitude information and a calibration and analysis scheme. Each granule covers a 90-minute period and includes both night and day portions of the orbit. The formats of the Expedited products are identical to the Standard CALIPSO data products and are described in the CALIPSO Data Products Catalog.

The Expedited data products will be available for a period of 30 days from the day they are produced, at which time the higher quality standard data products will be available. Science investigations to be published in research journals should, therefore, not be based on the Expedited data products, but should instead use the Standard CALIPSO Lidar, IIR, and WFC data products.

12-29-2011: CALIPSO Lidar Level 3 Monthly Aerosol Profile Data Version 1.00 Released

The CALIPSO Team released a new lidar level 3 data 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.

12-12-2011: CALIPSO Data Version 3.02 Released

The CALIPSO Team is releasing Version 3.02 which 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 V3.01 and V3.02 as a result of the compiler and computer architecture differences. Version 3.02 is being released in a forward processing mode beginning November 1, 2011.

09-06-2011: CALIPSO Data Availability Tool

A NEW web application is available that provides a tabular display of the CALIPSO data sets. This helpful tool provides daily and monthly listings of available products, and based on user selection, populates the data order requests and links directly to the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) order page. Links are also provided to identify reasons for data gaps. Try the new tool at ../tools/data_avail/.

04-19-2011: CLOUDSAT/CALIPSO SCIENCE TEAM MEETING

We are happy to announce that the next CloudSat/CALIPSO Science Team Meeting will be held in the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 15-17 June 2011.

 » Click here to download the agenda …

10-04-2010: CALIPSO User’s Guide

The LaRC CALIPSO Lidar Science Working Group has published an on-line users guide to help data users with questions they may have regarding the CALIPSO data products and usage.

09-09-2010: CALIPSO Search and Sub-setter Tool

A new web application is now available that enables CALIPSO data set to be searched and sub-setted based on date, time or geographical location.

06-18-2010: CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Version 3.01 Reprocessing has been completed!

The full set of Lidar Level 2 products for Version 3.01 is now available at the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC). Data from 2006 to the present can now be ordered at the ASDC and is currently being transferred to the ICARE data centre in France for distribution to our CNES partners.

04-28-2010: CALIPSO Team Releases Lidar Level 2 Version 3.01 Data!

Lidar Level 2 Version 3.01 data products represent a major update from previous generations of data products.

The cloud and aerosol profile products are now reported at identical 5-km horizontal resolutions, and include a full complement of diagnostic and quality assurance parameters.

Major algorithm updates include a new approach to determining cloud thermodynamic phase; greatly improved separation of boundary layer clouds and aerosols; refinements to the layer base determination scheme that enable more accurate estimates of aerosol optical depth; and the use of five-dimensional probability distribution functions to better distinguish clouds from aerosols.

Uncertainty estimates are now provided for all cloud and aerosol optical properties reported in the Level 2 data products.

This initial data release is for 2006 and 2007. Additional months will be released once they are reprocessed.

04-28-2010: CALIPSO and CloudSat to celebrate 4 years on-orbit

Four years ago on April 28, 2006, CALIPSO and CloudSat launched with the hope of collecting important scientific data that would contribute to a better understanding of air quality, weather, and climate.

CALIPSO and the other missions of the A-Train continue to do well and together they provide a rich, valuable data record that will help scientists answer significant questions about climatic processes and help improve ever-important climate prediction models.

11-23-2009: New CALIPSO Lidar Level 1 Version 3.01 Data Release

A new version of the Lidar Level 1 data set is being released. The maturity level definition of this release has been set to "Validated Stage 1." This Version 3.01 release replaces the Version 3.00 data.

07-02-2009: CALIPSO Team switched successfully from Laser 2 to Laser 1

In March 2009, the CALIPSO Team switched successfully from Laser 2 to Laser 1 as planned prior to launch. Since then, the performance of Laser 1 has been monitored, extensively analyzed and the results compared to Laser 2 performance.

A new version of the Lidar Level 1 data set is being released. The maturity level definition of this release has been set to "Validated Stage 1." This Version 3.00 release includes updated algorithms.

At this time, browse images between March 12, 2009 to June 10, 2009 are posted on this web site and the data are available from the Atmospheric Science Data Center.

04-28-2009: CALIPSO and CloudSat celebrate 3 years on-orbit

Three years ago on April 28, 2006, CALIPSO and CloudSat launched with the hope of collecting important scientific data that would contribute to a better understanding of air quality, weather and climate.

To date, CALIPSO has acquired more than 1.612 billion lidar profiles and the spacecraft/payload remain healthy with the prospect of 3 or more years of continue measurements to come.

CALIPSO and the other missions of the A-Train continue to do well and together they provide a rich, valuable data record that will help scientists answer significant questions about climatic processes and help improve ever-important climate prediction models.

03-01-2009: Instrument Update: CALIPSO lidar operations will be temporarily suspended for the first two weeks of March 2009 to allow for a switch from the primary laser to the backup laser. The laser switch is being made at this time because of a slow pressure leak in the primary laser’s container. Data production activities will be suspended and should resume in late April 2009 after an assessment of the laser's performance and data products are completed.

06-11-2008: CALIPSO operations and processing have resumed. The payload became operational at 20:50 UTC on June 10.

06-04-2008: CALIPSO data processing has been suspended. The payload transititioned to safe mode on June 3 and the team is investigating. Please check for an update on the status of the mission.

04-24-2008: CALIPSO Expedited Browse Images are now available and have a processing latency of about 12 hours. These products use degraded attitude information, a simple calibration scheme based on climatology and are made available to support operational forecasting activities. When available, the standard products should be used for detailed science analysis.  »  View CALIPSO Products.

03-24-2008: A few weeks ago the CALIPSO Data Management Team experienced a hardware failure of its storage system resulting in the loss of several terabytes of data, including the lidar browse image data available from this web site. Please keep in mind that CALIPSO data will always be available at Langley’s Atmospheric Science Data Center, however the browse images available on this web site will need to be regenerated and the CALIPSO Data Management Team is diligently working to get this data back online.

03-13-2008: The CALIPSO Science team held their first meeting of 2008 from March 11 to 13 in Paris. The meeting was held at the Centre National d'Etudes spatiales (CNES) headquarters and included science team members from around the world. The meeting included morning sessions that focused on data validation and the Version 2 algorithms, afternoon sessions that concentrated on new science discoveries and findings using CALIPSO data products, and daily poster sessions with space for 10 posters each day. The meeting highlighted studies that use and combine CALIPSO data with other A-Train observations and/or with models to improve our understanding of climate, weather, and air quality as well as improve model predictions.

03-12-2008: The CALIPSO spacecraft transitioned to Safe Hold Mode on March 3 in response to an anomaly with one of the reaction wheels used to maintain the satellite attitude. The Safe Hold sequence automatically turned off the CALIPSO payload, activated survival heaters, and placed the satellite in a sun-pointing inertial mode. The spacecraft reactiviation process was completed on March 7 with no sign of degraded reaction wheel performance. The payload was fully reactiviated and began collecting science data on March 11.

02-04-2008: CALIPSO reached its first billionth laser show on Sunday, February 3 at 13:18:04 UTC. After traveling more than 260 million miles since launch in April 2006, this landmark is a wonderful reflection on the engineering and science success of CALIPSO.

01-28-2008: Release 2 of the CALIPSO lidar data set is now available at the Atmospheric Science Data Center. See the CALIPSO Data Quality Statements for details on this new version of the data set.

11-14-2007: Approximately twenty-two hours of CALIPSO science data were lost due to a ground network support conflict on November 5, 2007.

10-18-2007: Updates on the instrument status page:
» + Instrument Status Page.

07-12-2007: CALIPSO to provide field mission support to NASA TC4:
+ NASA TC4 Field Mission Support.

05-11-2007: CALIPSO Science Team Meeting will be held June 11-15 in San Francisco.

12-08-2006: Public release of CALIPSO Data Products
The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite mission is pleased to announce an initial release of its data products. CALIPSO provides new insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols (airborne particles) play in regulating Earth's weather, climate, and air quality. CALIPSO is a joint mission between NASA and CNES, the French space agency.

CALIPSO's payload includes an active lidar (CALIOP), a passive Infrared Imaging Radiometer (IIR), and visible Wide Field Camera. This data release consists of data beginning in mid June 2006 and includes Level 1 radiances from each of the instruments. This release also includes the lidar Level 2 vertical feature mask and cloud and aerosol layer product. The CALIPSO data are available through the Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center and can be accessed at the following URL:

 »  https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table

Reference resources on the CALIPSO data set, including detailed data quality summaries and a data catalog are also available at the ASDC CALIPSO page.

If you have questions concerning the ordering of CALIPSO data products, contact User Services at support-asdc@earthdata.nasa.gov.

12-07-2006: The CALIPSO payload controller has been turned off, and won't resume operations before Monday, 12.11.06. Read more: »  Instrument Status Page

09-21-2006: CALIPSO lidar browse images are now available.  »  View Lidar images

07-25-2006: CALIPSO First light data have been released. View images and read more:
 » https://www.nasa.gov/calipso

06-09-2006: The first X-band data following the lidar align came in last night and we spent today locating an interesting data segment and making some nice looking images. Shown here is 532 nm total backscatter data, nighttime, averaged to 5 km horizontal resolution. The depolarization and 1064 data look good also. The map shows the ground track. In the first plot the satellite is near 60 N heading south. Near 8 N there is a layer near 20 km which we believe is the plume from the eruption of Soufriere a few weeks ago. A large polar stratospheric cloud can be seen above Antarctica. Congratulations to the engineering team for building such a nice instrument.
 » View pdf of "first light" data.

06-07-2006: The CALIPSO laser transmitter and receiver were successfully aligned today. A boresight search sequence and two boresight align sequences were executed during three consecutive night-side orbits. Comparisons of the alignment position from the two align sequences demonstrate repeatable performance. Overall spacecraft and payload performance continue to be nominal. A Lidar "First Light" image will be produced from today's X-Band data set as soon as it is received, processed and verified; look for something early next week.

05-31-2006: CALIPSO is in the A-Train! The spacecraft is in its final orbit and "first light" is expected soon. Stay tuned for more updates.

05-30-2006: CALIPSO Images: View images from the mission in the image gallery.  » View the pictures

05-18-2006: The first two science instruments on the CALIPSO Satellite, the Imaging Infrared Radiometer and the Wide Field Camera, have been powered up and are healthy. First-Light science data were received from the IIR on 11 May and the initial assessment is positive. The WFC was powered up on 15 May, and first-Light science data were received on 18 May. The process for powering the third instrument —the Lidar— is well underway. Stay tuned for more updates.

05-04-2006: Powering up: The payload controller has been activated and the IIR is expected to be turned on next week. Stay tuned for more updates.

04-28-2006: CALIPSO and CloudSat have launched!!!! For more information, visit the NASA portal web site:  » https://www.nasa.gov/calipso

04-23-2006: CALIPSO Prepares for Launch!     » View the pictures

09-22-2005: Nature Article Featuring CALIPSO and CloudSat       » Read the article

05-20-2005: CALIPSO Spacecraft Arrives at Vandenberg!        » View the pictures

05-16-2005: "NASA's CloudSat Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Site"       » Read More

03-30-2005: Information on element A.10 of the ROSES-05 NRA (NASA Research Announcements) is available in "Science Team»Resources".      » NRA Information