Lidar aerosol backscatter measurements: systematic, modeling, and calibration error considerations

Sources of systematic, modeling, and calibration errors that affect the interpretation and calibration of lidar aerosol backscatter data are discussed. The treatment pertains primarily to ground-based pulsed CO2 lidars that probe the troposphere and are calibrated using hard calibration targets. However, a large part of the analysis is relevant to other types of lidar system such as lidars operating at other wavelengths; cw focused lidars; airborne or earth-orbiting lidars; lidars measuring other regions of the atmosphere; lidars measuring nonaerosol elastic or inelastic backscatter; and lidars employing other calibration techniques.