CALIPSO at Four: Results and Progress

Aerosols and clouds play important roles in Earth?s climate system, but limitations in our ability to observe them globally limit our understanding of the climate system and our ability to model it. The CALIPSO satellite was developed to provide new capabilities to observe aerosol and cloud from space. CALIPSO carries the first polarization-sensitive lidar to fly in space, which has now provided a four-year record of global aerosol and cloud profiles. This paper briefly summarizes the status of the CALIPSO mission, describes some of the results from CALIPSO, and presents highlights of recent improvements in data products.