CALIGOLA: A Multidisciplinary Spaceborne Lidar Mission

Here we report on a new spaceborne lidar mission concept known as CALIGOLA (Cloud Aerosol Lidar for Global Scale Observations of the Ocean-Land Atmosphere System). The mission is multidisciplinary and will provide new insights into the processes that influence climate, weather, and air quality with advance measurement capabilities beyond CALIPSO and EarthCARE. CALIGOLA will further provide the first profiling of the world’s oceans to reveal unprecedented observations on the health and productivity of marine biology (phytoplankton and zooplankton) as well as provide unique observations of surface vegetation, ice, and snow.

The mission will feature an innovative three-wavelength lidar, that will simultaneously acquire elastic backscatter, Raman, and fluorescence measurements, with polarization sensitivity on the elastic channels. The instrument is further designed with greater sensitivity than CALIOP and with vertical resolution on the order of a few meters near the surface. The mission is planned for launch early next decade and is baselined to fly in a polar orbit that is compatible with the previous A-Train constellation to extend the long-term measurement record. CALIGOLA represents a partnership between Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).