Proceedings of the International Radiation Symposium (IRC/IAMAS)

The inception of space-borne lidar has added vital information on clouds vertical profile and distribution over the globe. This includes CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations), which has been screening clouds with CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) consistently from mid 2006. CALIOP cloud-top height (CTH) measurement capability exists for layers with optical depth (τ > 0.01), allowing it to detect subvisual and thin cirrus with high confidence. The CTH forms an essential parameter in understanding the role of clouds on climate, especially fluctuations in the effective CTH is significant in determining the cloud-feedback. Using CALIPSO Level 2 cloud layer product with a 5 km horizontal resolution from mid 2006-2015, fluctuations in effective CTH are shown for the tropics and the whole globe