The CALIOP lidar, carried on the CALIPSO satellite, has been acquiring global atmospheric profiles since June 2006. This dataset now offers the opportunity to characterize the global 3-D distribution of aerosol as well as seasonal and interannual variations, and confront aerosol models with observations in a way that has not been possible before. With that goal in mind, a monthly global gridded dataset of daytime and nighttime aerosol extinction profiles has been constructed, available as a Level 3 aerosol product. Averaged aerosol profiles for cloud-free and all-sky conditions are reported separately. This 6-yr dataset characterizes the global 3-dimensional distribution of tropospheric aerosol. Vertical distributions are seen to vary with season, as both source strengths and transport mechanisms vary. In most regions, clear-sky and all-sky mean aerosol profiles are found to be quite similar, implying a lack of correlation between high semi-transparent cloud and aerosol in the lower troposphere. An initial evaluation of the accuracy of the aerosol extinction profiles is presented. Detection limitations and the representivity of aerosol profiles in the upper troposphere are of particular concern. While results are preliminary, we present evidence that the monthly-mean CALIOP aerosol profiles provide quantitative characterization of elevated aerosol layers in major transport pathways. Aerosol extinction in the free troposphere in clean conditions, where the true aerosol extinction is typically 0.001 km⁻¹ or less, is generally underestimated, however. The work described here forms an initial global 3-D aerosol climatology which we plan to extend and improve over time

[1] We compare the aerosol optical depths (AOD) retrieved from backscatter measurements of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the Cloud Aerosol Lidar Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite with coincident Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) measurements. Overpass coincidence criteria of AE2 h and within a 40 km radius are satisfied at least once at 149 globally distributed AERONET sites from 2006 to 2010. Most data pairs (>80%) use AERONET measurements acquired AE30 min of the overpass. We examine the differences in AOD estimates between CALIOP and AERONET for various aerosol, environmental, and geographic conditions. Results show CALIOP AOD are lower than AERONET AOD especially at low optical depths as measured by AERONET (500 nm AOD < 0.1). Furthermore, the median relative AOD difference between the two measurements is 25% of the AERONET AOD for AOD > 0.1. Differences in AOD between CALIOP and AERONET are possibly due to cloud contamination, scene inhomogeneity, instrument view angle differences, CALIOP retrieval errors, and detection limits. Comparison of daytime to nighttime number of 5 km  60 m (60 m in the vertical) features detected by CALIOP show that there are 20% more aerosol features at night. We find that CALIPSO and AERONET do not agree on the cloudiness of scenes. Of the scenes that meet the above coincidence criteria, CALIPSO finds clouds in more than 45% of the coincident atmospheric columns AERONET classifies as clear.

Abstract. The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) version 4.10 (V4) level 2 aerosol data products, released in November 2016, include substantial improvements to the aerosol subtyping and lidar ratio selection algorithms. These improvements are described along with resulting changes in aerosol optical depth (AOD). The most fundamental change in V4 level 2 aerosol products is a new algorithm to identify aerosol subtypes in the stratosphere. Four aerosol subtypes are introduced for the stratospheric aerosols: polar stratospheric aerosol (PSA), volcanic ash, sulfate/other, and smoke. The tropospheric aerosol subtyping algorithm was also improved by adding the following enhancements: (1) all aerosol subtypes are now allowed over polar regions, whereas the version 3 (V3) algorithm allowed only clean continental and polluted continental aerosols; (2) a new “dusty marine” aerosol subtype is introduced, representing mixtures of dust and marine aerosols near the ocean surface; and (3) the “polluted continental” and “smoke” subtypes have been renamed “polluted continental/smoke” and “elevated smoke”, respectively. V4 also revises the lidar ratios for clean marine, dust, clean continental, and elevated smoke subtypes. As a consequence of the V4 updates, the mean 532 nm AOD retrieved by CALIOP has increased by 0.044 (0.036) or 52 % (40 %) for nighttime (daytime). Lidar ratio revisions are the most influential factor for AOD changes from V3 to V4, especially for cloud-free skies. Preliminary validation studies show that the AOD discrepancies between CALIOP and AERONET/MODIS (ocean) are reduced in V4 compared to V3.

Estimates of global mean direct climate forcing by absorbing aerosols located above boundary layer clouds are large, uncertain, and almost entirely unconstrained by observations. Spaceborne lidar offers a new opportunity for global constraints. Here we examine techniques for using liquid water clouds as lidar targets, allowing aerosol optical depth and Ångström exponent to be deduced directly from aerosol effects on light transmission. Two such techniques are examined using data from the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO). The first is a previously reported method based on measurements of cloud depolarization ratio (DR) at 532‐nm wavelength. The second is a new method using measurements of cloud color ratio (CR), which is the ratio of the signal from the cloud at 1064 nm to that at 532 nm. Optical depth retrievals from these two methods compare favorably over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean during August 2006, when biomass burning aerosols are frequently advected over marine stratiform clouds. The CR technique is mainly sensitive to fine‐mode aerosols and essentially insensitive to clouds and coarse‐mode dust. Because anthropogenic aerosol is predominantly found in the fine mode, the CR technique can be used to help identify situations where anthropogenic cloudy‐sky direct radiative forcing is occurring. We demonstrate this capability using 6 months data over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.