Initial performance assessment of CALIOP

TLDR

CALIOP is a spaceborne two‑wavelength polarization lidar aboard the CALIPSO satellite, launched in 2006, providing high‑resolution vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols with a large dynamic range. The paper aims to describe the CALIPSO mission and CALIOP instrument and to provide an initial assessment of their on‑orbit measurement performance. The authors describe the CALIPSO mission, the CALIOP instrument, and conduct an initial on‑orbit performance assessment. Initial analyses show that CALIOP data quality meets or exceeds expectations.

Abstract

The Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP, pronounced the same as “calliope”) is a spaceborne two‐wavelength polarization lidar that has been acquiring global data since June 2006. CALIOP provides high resolution vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols, and has been designed with a very large linear dynamic range to encompass the full range of signal returns from aerosols and clouds. CALIOP is the primary instrument carried by the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite, which was launched on April 28, 2006. CALIPSO was developed within the framework of a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency, CNES. Initial data analysis and validation intercomparisons indicate the quality of data from CALIOP meets or exceeds expectations. This paper presents a description of the CALIPSO mission, the CALIOP instrument, and an initial assessment of on‐orbit measurement performance.