NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite was successfully launched in 2006 and has provided an unprecedented opportunity to study cloud and aerosol layers using range‐resolved laser remote sensing. Dedicated validation flights were conducted using the airborne Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) to validate the CALIPSO Level 1 and 2 data products. This paper presents results from coincident CALIPSO and CPL measurements of ice cloud spatial properties. Flight segment case studies are shown as well as statistics for all coincident measurements during the CALIPSO‐CloudSat Validation Experiment (CC‐VEX). CALIPSO layer detection algorithms for cirrus clouds are reliable in comparison with CPL, with best agreement occurring during nighttime coincident segments when the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) of both instruments is greatest. However, the two instruments disagree on ice cloud spatial properties in two distinct cases. CALIPSO experiences less sensitivity to optically thin cirrus due to lower SNR when compared to CPL data at identical spatial scales. The incorporation of extended spatial averaging in the CALIPSO layer detection algorithm succeeds in detecting the optically thin cirrus, but the averaging process occasionally results in spatial smearing, both horizontally and vertically, of broken cirrus clouds. The second disparity occurs because, in contrast to CPL, multiple scattering contributes significantly to CALIPSO lidar measurements of cirrus clouds. As a result, the CALIPSO signal penetrates deeper into opaque cirrus clouds, and in these cases CALIPSO will report lower apparent cloud base altitudes than CPL.