Mitigating impacts of low energy laser pulses on CALIOP data products

Tackett, Jason L.; Ryan, Robert A.; Garnier, Anne E.; Kar, Jayanta; Getzewich, Brian J.; Cai, Xia; Vaughan, Mark A.; Trepte, Charles R.; Verhappen, Ron; Winker, David M.; Lee, Kam-Pui A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6211-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6211-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6211-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

Research article

|

05 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 05 Nov 2025

Mitigating impacts of low energy laser pulses on CALIOP data products

Jason L. Tackett, Robert A. Ryan, Anne E. Garnier, Jayanta Kar, Brian J. Getzewich, Xia Cai, Mark A. Vaughan, Charles R. Trepte, Ron Verhappen, David M. Winker, and Kam-Pui A. Lee

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6211-2025-supplement

Data sets

CALIPSO Lidar Level 1B profile data, V4-10 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/LID_L1-STANDARD-V4-10

CALIPSO Lidar Level 1B profile data, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L1-Standard-V4-51

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 5 km Merged Layer, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmMLay-Standard-V4-51

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Vertical Feature Mask (VFM), V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_VFM-Standard-V4-51

CALIPSO Infrared Imaging Radiometer (IIR) Level 2 Track, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/IIR/CALIPSO/CAL_IIR_L2_Track-Standard-V4-51

Short summary

The spaceborne atmospheric lidar CALIOP experienced an increasing number of intermittent low energy laser pulses in the final seven years of the 17-year long CALIPSO mission. Low energy pulses degraded the quality of retrievals in affected profiles. This paper describes low energy mitigation (LEM) algorithms that remove affected data and minimize data loss. LEM is demonstrated to correct calibration biases, reduce false feature detections, and restore the integrity of the CALIOP data record.