Orbiter · Competed · PI-led · Launched on April 28, 2006 · Completed · LCC: $283M/$505M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods
ScopePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For CALIPSO, papers published May 1, 2006 to January 1, 2024. Methods/Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For CALIPSO, papers published from 2006 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods
1,9471,947
CitationsCitations: how often other papers cited these publications. Each paper’s citations count over the year it appeared and the three years after, so older missions get no head start. Methods
23,80023,800
Top-10% papersTop-10% papers: the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, all publication years ranked together. They mark the results other scientists used most. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods
156156
Top-1% papersTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window, all publication years ranked together. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods
8.78.7
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h of the window’s papers have at least h citations each, counting each paper’s citations only over its citation window. Methods
4646
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Here, over the window’s papers and their windowed citations. Methods
6363
m-indexm-index: the window’s h-index divided by the window’s length in years. It discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods
2.62.6
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods
302302
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods
789789
Publications and citations by year
Publications per yearCumulative citations
Institutional contributionsThe institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods
We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming CALIPSO in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.
((=abs:"Infrared Pathfinder" OR =abs:"Aerosol Lidar Pathfinder" OR =abs:"Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization" OR (abs:caliop AND abs:(satellite OR lidar OR aerosol OR cloud OR atmosphere OR stratosphere OR ocean OR fog OR CALIPSO OR ="boundary layer")) OR ((abs:calipso AND abs:(satellite OR lidar OR aerosol OR cloud OR atmosphere OR ocean OR CloudSat OR dust OR snow OR cirrus OR convection OR cumulus OR fog OR IIR OR WFC)) NOT =abs:"sea-calipso"))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2006-05 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")