CALIPSO Lidar Calibration at 532 nm: Version 4 Nighttime Algorithm.

Data products from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on board Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) were recently updated following the implementation of new (version 4) calibration algorithms for all of the level 1 attenuated backscatter measurements. In this work we present the motivation for and the implementation of the version 4 nighttime 532 nm parallel channel calibration. The nighttime 532 nm calibration is the most fundamental calibration of CALIOP data, since all of CALIOP's other radiometric calibration procedures - i.e., the 532 nm daytime calibration and the 1064 nm calibrations during both nighttime and daytime - depend either directly or indirectly on the 532 nm nighttime calibration. The accuracy of the 532 nm nighttime calibration has been significantly improved by raising the molecular normalization altitude from 30-34 km to 36-39 km to substantially reduce stratospheric aerosol contamination. Due to the greatly reduced molecular number density and consequently reduced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at these higher altitudes, the signal is now averaged over a larger number of samples using data from multiple adjacent granules. As well, an enhanced strategy for filtering the radiation-induced noise from high energy particles was adopted. Further, the meteorological model used in the earlier versions has been replaced by the improved MERRA-2 model. An aerosol scattering ratio of 1.01 ± 0.01 is now explicitly used for the calibration altitude. These modifications lead to globally revised calibration coefficients which are, on average, 2-3% lower than in previous data releases. Further, the new calibration procedure is shown to eliminate biases at high altitudes that were present in earlier versions and consequently leads to an improved representation of stratospheric aerosols. Validation results using airborne lidar measurements are also presented. Biases relative to collocated measurements acquired by the Langley Research Center (LaRC) airborne high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) are reduced from 3.6% ± 2.2% in the version 3 data set to 1.6% ± 2.4 % in the version 4 release.

Inherent optical properties of the coccolithophore: Emiliania huxleyi.

A realistic nonspherical model for Emiliania huxleyi (EHUX) is built, based on electron micrographs of coccolithophore cells. The Inherent Optical Properties (IOP) of the EHUX are then calculated numerically by using the discrete dipole approximation. The coccolithophore model includes a near-spherical core with the refractive index of 1.04 + m(i)j, and a carbonate shell formed by smaller coccoliths with refractive index of 1.2 + m(i)j, where m(i) = 0 or 0.01 and j(2) = -1. The reported IOP are the Mueller scattering matrix, backscattering probability, and depolarization ratio. Our calculation shows that the Mueller matrices of coccolithophores show different angular dependence from those of coccoliths.

CALIPSO lidar ratio retrieval over the ocean.

We are demonstrating on a few cases the capability of CALIPSO to retrieve the 532 nm lidar ratio over the ocean when CloudSat surface scattering cross section is used as a constraint. We are presenting the algorithm used and comparisons with the column lidar ratio retrieved by the NASA airborne high spectral resolution lidar. For the three cases presented here, the agreement is fairly good. The average CALIPSO 532 nm column lidar ratio bias is 13.7% relative to HSRL, and the relative standard deviation is 13.6%. Considering the natural variability of aerosol microphysical properties, this level of accuracy is significant since the lidar ratio is a good indicator of aerosol types. We are discussing dependencies of the accuracy of retrieved aerosol lidar ratio on atmospheric aerosol homogeneity, lidar signal to noise ratio, and errors in the optical depth retrievals. We are obtaining the best result (bias 7% and standard deviation around 6%) for a nighttime case with a relatively constant lidar ratio (in the vertical) indicative of homogeneous aerosol type.

Lidar equation for ocean surface and subsurface.

The lidar equation for ocean at optical wavelengths including subsurface signals is revisited using the recent work of the radiative transfer and ocean color community for passive measurements. The previous form of the specular and subsurface echo term are corrected from their heritage, which originated from passive remote sensing of whitecaps, and is improved for more accurate use in future lidar research. A corrected expression for specular and subsurface lidar return is presented. The previous formalism does not correctly address angular dependency of specular lidar return and overestimates the subsurface term by a factor ranging from 89% to 194% for a nadir pointing lidar. Suggestions for future improvements to the lidar equation are also presented.