Lite aerosol retrievals revisited in support of CALIPSO and GLAS

The Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) shuttle mission demonstrated that spaceborne lidar offers an effective means for detecting the spatial features of significant regional aerosol concentrations resulting, for example, from Saharan dust, African and South American biomass burning, urban plumes and the like. Quantitative retrievals of aerosol backscatter and extinction profiles have also been obtained from the LITE 532 nm data using initial LITE calibrations and preliminary assumptions/modeling constraints regarding the aerosol extinction-to-backscatter ratio, S_a, or auxiliary transmittance information. Two upcoming satellite lidar missions, GLAS (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) and CALIPSO(Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) have provided impetus for continued analysis of LITE data as a testbed for developing and validating improved aerosol retrieval approaches for these satellite missions. This paper presents updated LITE aerosol retrievals, including uncertainty assessments, enabled by revised calibration approaches (including the 1064 nm channel) and techniques/models for reducing the range in S_a values assumed for the retrievals.