Two-wavelength Lidar Measurement of Cloud-aerosol Optical Properties

Based on unstability of inversion algorithms of the lidar equation caused by molecular scattering, a new algorithm to derive both the aerosol extinction to backscatter ratio and the extinction coefficient profile is proposed in this paper. As shown in numerical experiments, in case of a ground-based lidar, the error in the aerosol optical depth solution can be less than 10%, and the error of < 6.7 in the aerosol extinction to backscatter ratio can be obtained if the error in the lidar constant is <6%; and in the case of a spaceborne lidar, the present method can be used to de-termine the lidar constant at a short wavelength with an accuracy of being better than 1%.