CALIPSO
CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations ) 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" 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.
The CALIPSO-GOCCP (GCM Oriented Cloud Calipso Product) is designed to evaluate GCM cloudiness. CALIPSO-GOCCP contains observational cloud diagnostics fully consistent with the ones simulated by the ensemble. See: COSP
Key Figures
CALIPSO day and night cloud fraction estimates (low, middle, high, total, clear) for June, 15,2006. - MapLowMidHigh file contains maps of Low-Mid-High cloud fractions, total cloud fraction and clear fraction. [Climate Data Guide; D. Shea;http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/calipso.shtml]
CALIPSO day and night total cloud fraction on June 6, 2006. [Climate Data Guide; D. Shea; http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/calipso.shtml
Monthly mean (December 2010) vertical profiles of cloud fraction. [Climate Data Guide; D. Shea; http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/calipso.shtml]
Monthly mean (December 2010) cross sections of cloud fraction. [Climate Data Guide; D. Shea; http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/Applications/calipso.shtml]
Other Information
- Chepfer H., S. Bony, D. Winker, G. Cesana, JL. Dufresne, P. Minnis, C. J. Stubenrauch, S. Zeng, 2010: The GCM Oriented Calipso Cloud Product (CALIPSO-GOCCP),J. Geophys. Res., 115, D00H16
- Chepfer, H., S. Bony, D. Winker, M. Chiriaco, J.-L. Dufresne, and G. Sèze, 2008: Use of CALIPSO lidar observations to evaluate the cloudiness simulated by a climate model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L15704
- G. Cesana, H. Chepfer, 2009: "The GCM Oriented CALIPSO Cloud Product (CALIPSO-GOCCP)", poster, [PDF]
- Stubenrauch, C., W. Rossow and S. Kinne (2012), Assessment of Global Cloud Data Sets from Satellites, A Project of the World Climate Research Programme Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Radiation Panel, WCRP Report No. 23/2012, 176 pp (.pdf).
- Kato, S., et al. (2011), Improvements of top ‐ of ‐ atmosphere and surface irradiance computations with CALIPSO ‐ , CloudSat ‐ , and MODIS ‐ derived cloud and aerosol properties, J. Geophys. Res. , 116 , D19209