Full reprocessing of PARASOL data archive with new data sets available

1 September 2015

Update: 2016/09
After the end of the PARASOL mission, CNES and ICARE completed a full-mission reprocessing in 2014. CNES carried out the final Level-1 PARASOL reprocessing using an improved algorithm incorporating all final in-flight radiometric calibration parameters (CNES document PARASOL_L1_final_reprocessing.pdf ). ICARE proceeded with the reprocessing of the PARASOL Level-2 and Level-3 products using revised science codes as well as new codes provided by the scientists.
As a result, in addition to improved standard products, new, innovative atmospheric products also become available.
The new aerosol and cloud parameters from the revised science codes are:

Uncertainty of AOT (Level-2 aerosol over ocean) (upcoming description)
Aerosol altitude (Level-2 aerosol over land) (upcoming description)
CLOud VErtical Structure (CLOVES) parameters : Cloud top and middle oxygen pressure, multilayer flag,
and cloud geometrical extent (Level-2 Earth radiation budget, water vapor and clouds)

For aerosol retrievals over ocean, code revisions include:

improvement of aerosols non-spherical models
improvement of cloud mask
implementation of see-ice mask
update of ancillary data

for aerosol retrievals over land:

implementation of higher resolution land biome map

and for cloud and radiative budget products:

update of the solar irradiance.

Scientists completed the quality control. Invalid orbits of some Level-2 products (OC2, LS2, RB2) were removed, a few minor fixes were incorporated in a new version of RB2 (v21.22), and all derived Level-3 products (OC3, AC3, RB3) were generated. The public release occurred in September 2016. Here is a summary of the latest version numbers (see also the ICARE online catalogue):
L1_B: v03.02 – Top of the atmosphere radiances – Level-1
OC2: v11.11 – Daily aerosol product over ocean – Level-2
LS2: v10.11- Daily aerosol product over land – Level-2
RB2: v21.22 – Daily cloud, water vapor, and radiative budget
PM-L2: v3.00 – Daily aerosol and cloud product from combined PARASOL-MODIS observations – Level-2
PR_ATM: v.12.07.2 – Daily and monthly global gridded atmosphere products – Level-3
OC3: v11.11 – Monthly Aerosol Product over Ocean – Level 3
AC3: v10.11 – Monthly Aerosol Product over Land – Level 3
RB3: v08.06 – Monthly Cloud & Radiative Budget Products – Level 3
A table with the version history and collection information of the PARASOL products will be provided in 2016.

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