CALIPSO Profile over China

  • Released Thursday, August 3, 2006
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Aerosols, small particles in the atmosphere, can be produced from natural sources, such as volcanos and dust storms, or from human activity, such as pollution from manufacturing and automobiles. Aerosols remain in the atmosphere for long periods and travel across the globe propelled by winds. They also affect weather and climate by reflecting or absorbing sunlight and by altering chemical reactions within the atmosphere. The CALIOP lidar onboard the CALIPSO satellite enables scientists to collect aerosol data on slices or 'curtains' through the atmosphere. In these images looking eastward across China over the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula, slices of total attenuated backscatter show the geographic location and altitude of both aerosols and subvisible clouds in the upper troposphere. The curtain shown here extends from sea level to a height of 20 km. Both the height of the curtain and the terrain are exaggerated by 6x. The near-vertical line indicates 40 degree North latitude, while the horizontal line marks 120 degree east longitude.

This image is a wide-angle view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The view is looking eastward across China to the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula.

This image is a wide-angle view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The view is looking eastward across China to the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula.

This image shows a close-up view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The Yellow Sea is visible on the right side of the image.

This image shows a close-up view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The Yellow Sea is visible on the right side of the image.

This image is a close-up view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The view is looking eastward across China over the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula.

This image is a close-up view of the profile of CALIPSO total attenuated backscatter from 2006-06-15. The view is looking eastward across China over the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula.

This color bar used to map the total attenuated backscatter is semi-transparent black for small values less than 0.01. All other values are opaque.

This color bar used to map the total attenuated backscatter is semi-transparent black for small values less than 0.01. All other values are opaque.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
Pat Lucker (NASA/LaRC)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

This page was originally published on Thursday, August 3, 2006.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

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