Reducing uncertainties in aerosol retrievals from Micro Pulse Lidar measurements

Vertical profiles of aerosol optical depth can be derived from single-frequency lidar returns supplemented by measurements of total column aerosol optical depth. The NASA Wallops Flight Facility Micro Pulse Lidar system which the authors used for the experiments in this study is a commercially available, ground-based, portable, eyesafe laser radar system operating at 523.5 nm. In order to improve upon the quality of aerosol retrievals from Micro Pulse Lidar data the authors conducted experiments to assess the variability in instrument calibration factors including detector after pulse, field-of-view overlap correction and determination of the system calibration constant. The authors analyze the effects of these observed variabilities and of different procedural modifications on the retrieval of aerosol optical depth profiles