What is CALIPSO?
CALIPSO is (among a couple of other things) a space-based LIDAR
Launched in 2005
Flies on the A-train
• Statistics on the vertical structure of clouds
• Geographic and vertical distribution of aerosols around the world
• Detection of sub-visible cirrus and polar stratospheric clouds
• Indirect estimate of the radiative contribution of aerosols
What CALIPSO does
•Doesn’t have to worry about low clouds getting in the way of observations of the upper troposphere
•Can survey more than one area
Advantages of Space-Based LIDAR
Sample CALIPSO retrievals
http://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/products/lidar/browse_images/show_calendar.php
Each page has approx. 34 images on it
Path of the satellite on the specified day
Also has images of just daytime and just nighttime
Polar projections
This orbit doesn’t pass over the ArcticThis orbit does pass over the Antarctic, but that’s not the part we clicked
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