Calipso Level 3 Data Exploitation by EARLINET Correlative Measurements

The almost six-years long database of aerosol and cloud vertical profiles provided by CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) is at the present the longest database of aerosol optical properties profiles at global scale. This database is a unique tool for the characterization of aerosol 4D distribution at global scale. A new CALIPSO data product has been released on December 2011: the Level 3 data, i.e. monthly mean profiles of the aerosol extinction evaluated on 5° longitude x 2° latitude grid. These profiles provide a suitable database for climatological studies and comparison/assimilation in climate models. Before proceeding in this sense, the first issue to address is understanding how much these profiles can represent the 4D space on which they are evaluated. High quality profiles of aerosol optical properties provided by the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) offers a unique opportunity for the exploitation of the CALIPSO Level 3 data products.