CALIPSO Lidar Description and Performance Assessment
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 1 July 2009
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
- Vol. 26 (7), 1214-1228
- https://doi.org/10.1175/2009jtecha1223.1
Abstract
This paper provides background material for a collection of Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) algorithm papers that are to be published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. It provides a brief description of the design and performance of CALIOP, a three-channel elastic backscatter lidar on the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite. After more than 2 yr of on-orbit operation, CALIOP performance continues to be excellent in the key areas of laser energy, signal-to-noise ratio, polarization sensitivity, and overall long-term stability, and the instrument continues to produce high-quality data products. There are, however, some areas where performance has been less than ideal. These include short-term changes in the calibration coefficients at both wavelengths as the satellite passes between dark and sunlight, some radiation-induced effects on both the detectors and the laser when passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly, and slow transient recovery on the 532-nm channels. Although these issues require some special treatment in data analysis, they do not seriously detract from the overall quality of the level 2 data products.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- CALIPSO Lidar Calibration Algorithms. Part I: Nighttime 532-nm Parallel Channel and 532-nm Perpendicular ChannelJournal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2009
- Development of a validated end-to-end model for space-based lidar systemsPublished by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng ,2007
- The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) Laser TransmitterIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2007
- Depolarization ratio–effective lidar ratio relation: Theoretical basis for space lidar cloud phase discriminationGeophysical Research Letters, 2007
- Performance of the GLAS laser transmitterPublished by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng ,2006
- Qualification of the laser transmitter for the CALIPSO aerosol lidar missionPublished by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng ,2006
- Cloud and aerosol measurements from GLAS: Overview and initial resultsGeophysical Research Letters, 2005
- THE CLOUDSAT MISSION AND THE A-TRAINBulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2002
- Comparison of various linear depolarization parameters measured by lidarApplied Optics, 1999
- Lidar Backscatter from Horizontal Ice Crystal PlatesJournal of Applied Meteorology, 1978