How to visualize CALIOP data

(a)    CALIOP-Lidar Browse Images for quick look:

Visualizations of CALIOP Level 1 data (different versions) since 13 June 2006 to present are available online at https://www-calipso.larc.nasa.gov/products/lidar/browse_images/production/.

(b)   Tools to visualize and analyze CALIOP data written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) are available at https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/tools/. These tools are:

• view_hdf
• CALIPSO Data Read Software
• Vertical Feature Flag Reader

(c)    GNU Data Language (GDL)

IDL codes for reading CALIOP HDF files can be run on GDL (0.9.8) which is an open-source alternative to IDL.

• On Linux platforms (such as Ubuntu) it can be easily installed. Open a terminal and run the command: sudo apt-get install gnudatalanguage
• Guide to using GDL on Windows platform:
• https://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/gdl/
• https://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/colinux/

(d)   Python

CALIOP HDF data files can be read using Python programming language. Minimum requirement is to install a Python package (Pyhdf) to read HDF files. To install Pyhdf on Anaconda 3:

• Run Anaconda Powershell Prompt as an administrator from Windows search
• Run the command: conda install -c zeus1942 pyhdf

(e)    Libraries written in C, C++ and IDL to visualize and analyze CALIPSO data are available at: http://www.icare.univ-lille1.fr/tools/