Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Try the next-generation Data Catalog at catalog-beta.data.gov and help shape it with your feedback.

  • Feedback

    • CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 5 km Merged Layer, V4-51

    Metadata Updated: March 13, 2026

    CAL_LID_L2_05kmMLay-Standard-V4-51 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 5 km Merged (cloud + aerosol) Layer Data, Version 4-51 data product. This data product was collected using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument. Within this layer product are two general classes of data: Column Properties (including position data and viewing geometry) and Layer Properties. The lidar layer products consist of a sequence of column descriptors, each associated with a variable number of layer descriptors. The column descriptors specify the temporal and geophysical location of the column of the atmosphere through which a given lidar pulse travels. Also included in the column descriptors are indicators of surface lighting conditions, information about the surface type, and the number of features (e.g., aerosol layers) identified within the column. The CALIPSO satellite comprises three instruments: CALIOP, Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and Wide Field Camera (WFC). CALIPSO is a joint satellite mission between NASA and the French Agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales). CALIPSO was launched on April 28, 2006, to study the impact of clouds and aerosols on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. From June 13, 2006, to September 13, 2018, CALIPSO was part of the A-Train constellation for coincident Earth Observations. After September 13, 2018, the satellite was lowered from 705 to 688 km to resume flying in formation with CloudSat, called the C-Train.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 9, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date March 13, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 9, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date March 13, 2026
    Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmMLay-Standard-V4-51
    Data Last Modified 2026-03-09
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 395d12c6-0e11-4318-9814-bb6abfd1ac6d
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180}}}, Minimum Altitude;Maximum Altitude, -1.8183749 km;39.79567 km
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 1cb26063a73587a5e7e8e567b4088a61f14139553c85a942bbc374d8d10697ec
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2006-06-11/2023-06-30

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.