Description
CAL_LID_L2_VFM-Standard-V5-00 is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Lidar Level 2 Vertical Feature Mask (VFM) data product. This data product was collected using the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument. The CALIOP Level 2 VFM data product contains scene classification and lidar lighting and land/water indicators. CALIPSO was a partnership between NASA and the French Space Agency, CNES. CALIPSO was launched on April28, 2006 to study the many roles played by clouds and aerosols in Earth’s climate and weather. It flew in the international A-Train constellation for coincident Earth observations from launch until September 13, 2018, when CALIPSO began lowering its orbit from 705 km to 688 km (428 miles)above the Earth to resume formation flying with CloudSat as part of the “C-Train”. The CALIPSO satellite carried three remote sensing instruments: the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), the Imaging Infrared Radiometer (IIR), and the Wide Field-of-View Camera(WFC). By mutual agreement between NASA and CNES, the CALIPSO science mission concluded on August 1, 2023.