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Description

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) is a two-wavelength lidar that provides high-resolution vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds. CALIOP is one of three instruments aboard the joint NASA/French Space Agency Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite, which launched in 2006. CALIPSO provides insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols play in regulating Earth's weather, climate, and air quality.

Product Summary

Platforms
CALIPSO
Instruments
CALIOP
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Geographic Region
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2006-04-28 to 2018-09-14
Data Partner
Atmospheric Science Data Center (NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC) ,
Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC), Global Change Data Center, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/GCDC/OB.DAAC) ,
Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG)
Concept ID
C3574826988-OB_CLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
222
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Ocean Color ,
Lidar Backscatter

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group. (2025). CALIPSO CALIOP Regional Particulate Backscattering Coefficient (Bbp) Data, version 1 [Data set]. NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIPSO/CALIOP/L3/BBP/1 Date Accessed: 2025-12-13

Documents

Variables

Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.

The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
bbp Particulate backscattering coefficient at 532 nm 1/m float32 N/A N/A N/A
lat Latitude degrees_north float32 N/A N/A N/A
lon Longitude degrees_east float32 N/A N/A N/A
time Time in seconds since 1970-01-01 seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 float64 N/A N/A N/A
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