NASA's ASDC has released the CALIPSO-CloudSat-MODIS 25KM quantification of aerosol-cloud interactions dataset from the Satellite Cloud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) project. This dataset provides a collection of collocated daytime satellite retrievals aggregating cloud and vertically resolved aerosol properties to a 25-km along-track resolution.
The SatCORPS project dataset combines data from Aqua-MODIS, CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), and CALIPSO's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instruments. The primary objective of this dataset is to support research on new observational constraints for evaluating aerosol-cloud interactions, specifically utilizing vertically resolved CALIPSO aerosol properties. The methods and algorithms support the research outlined in Li et al. (2026), filtering for boundary layer clouds (liquid cloud tops below 3km) and focusing on three vertical aerosol levels: near-surface, cloud-level, and free troposphere.
CALIOP_CLOUDSAT_MODIS_25KM (Version 1.0): Contains combined daytime overpass observations (totaling 3,466 files) of cloud properties (e.g., cloud droplet density, effective radius, cloud fraction, optical depth, top height/temperature/pressure, liquid water path) and aerosol properties (e.g., aerosol optical depth and aerosol extinction coefficients at near-surface, cloud-level, and free troposphere altitudes).
Technical Details
- Temporal coverage:June 12, 2006 – December 5, 2017
- Spatial coverage/resolution:Non-polar oceans (between 60°S and 60°N) at a 25 km along-track spatial resolution.
- Archived anddistributedin netCDF-4 format
- Processing level:Level 3
Version:1.0 - DOI: 10.5067/SATCORPS/CALIOP_CLOUDSAT_MODIS_25KM_L3.1.0
Access Information
For data access and more information, visit the CALIOP_CLOUDSAT_MODIS_25KM landing page: https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/catalog/larc-cloud-caliop-cloudsat-modis-25km-1.0
Access Methods
Users can access this data through:
- NASA Earthdata Search
- CMR Virtual Directories
For questions about this data release or assistance with data access, please contact the ASDC User Services team or visit the Earthdata Forum.
Contact Information
David Painemal: david.painemal@nasa.gov
Zhujun Li: zhujun.li@nasa.gov
References
Li, Z., Painemal, D., Feng, Y., and Zheng, X.: Advancing the quantification of aerosol-cloud interactions with the CALIPSO-CloudSat-Aqua/MODIS record, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2026 (accepted).