Aerosol and cloud interaction observed from high spectral resolution lidar data

Recent studies utilizing satellite retrievals have shown a strong correlation between aerosol optical depth (AOD) and cloud cover. However, these retrievals from passive sensors are subject to many limitations, including cloud adjacency (or three‐dimensional) effects, possible cloud contamination, uncertainty in the AOD retrieval. Some of these limitations do not exist in High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) observations; for instance, HSRL observations are not affected by cloud adjacency effects, are less prone to cloud contamination, and offer accurate aerosol property measurements (backscatter coefficient, extinction coefficient, lidar ratio, backscatter Angstrom exponent, and aerosol optical depth) at a fine spatial resolution (