Abstract
Clouds and aerosols affect the magnitude of radiative fluxes at the Earth's surface and within the atmosphere through the scattering and absorption of incoming solar and outgoing thermal radiation. Through these mechanisms they have important influences ont he climate and remote sensing from space is required to assess their effects on a global scale. Current capabilities to observe clouds and aerosols using passive satellite sensors are limited, however. The lidar in-space technology experiment, flown on the space shuttle in September 1994, demonstrated the application of space lidar to the study of clouds and aerosols. Lidar technology has now matured to a point where satellite lidars with on- orbit lifetimes of several years are feasible. Space lidar will provide vertically resolved measurements of the distribution of clouds and aerosols as well as optical and microphysical properties, allowing improved characterization of the role of aerosol and cloud in global climate. This paper will discuss the application of cloud/aerosol satellite lidars to the climate problem.
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