Introduction of the CALIOP Level 3 Cloud Products
Abstract
The high vertical resolution and sensitivity of space-borne active sensors, especially lidars, provide an improved understanding of the global spatial and temporal distributions of clouds that cannot be obtained from passive sensors alone. Since launch in 2006, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization ( CALIOP), flying onboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation ( CALIPSO) spacecraft, has acquired more than 13 years of global cloud observations. The CALIPSO project recently released a newly developed suite of level 3 (L3) cloud products that includes a 3-dimensional (3D) cloud occurrence product, an ice cloud product that aggregates vertically resolved extinction and ice-water content retrievals, and an updated dataset submitted to the archive established by the GEWEX Cloud Assessment. All products are based on the recently released CALIOP Version 4 Level 2 cloud products, which feature numerous improvements in the algorithms that derive the spatial and optical properties of clouds. This presentation will introduce the contents of each product and describe the algorithms utilized to generate the product. We also include demonstrations on how to use these products for deriving and investigating cloud climatology. The strengths and limitations of each product are discussed as well. Suggestions and comments are welcome to help augment and improve the CALIPSO level 3 cloud products to better serve the cloud community.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A51N2800C
- Keywords:
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- 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3314 Convective processes;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3319 General circulation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1616 Climate variability;
- GLOBAL CHANGE