An Iterative Algorithm to Estimate LIDAR Ratio for Thin Cirrus Cloud over Aerosol Layer

A new iterative algorithm is developed to estimate LIDAR ratio for a thin cirrus cloud over an aerosol layer. First, the thin cirrus cloud is screened out and replaced by a modeled LIDAR signal and the extinction coefficients of the aerosol layer are derived using the Fernald backward method. These aerosol coefficients are referred as the “actual values”. Second, the original LIDAR signal which includes the thin cirrus cloud is also inverted by the Fernald backward method down to the aerosol layer but using different LIDAR ratio for the thin cirrus cloud. Depending on the different assumptions about the LIDAR ratio of the thin cirrus cloud, different sets of aerosol extinction can be derived. The “actual values ” which are found in the first step can be used to constrain this iterative progress and the correct LIDAR ratio of the thin cirrus cloud can be found. The detailed description of this method and retrieval examples are given in the paper. The cases compared with other methods are presented and the statistical result is also shown and agrees well with other studies