Due to the big distance between a spaceborne lidar and the sounding targets a great volume of the atmospheric domain is caught within the lidar receiver field of view and the multiple scattering highly affects the lidar returns. Variance reduction Monte Carlo method and analytical extension of the Mie theory are used for the calculation of spaceborne lidar returns from multilayered cloud systems. A main advantage of Monte Carlo techniques is that they allow the calculation of the solution with the desired accuracy. The analytical scattering extension of the Mie theory leads to analytical expressions of the n-fold scattered electromagnetic field and then to a generalisation of the optical parameters. The performance capabilities of identification of cloud layers from space has been evaluated. The retrieval of the extinction and optical depth in clear and cloudy atmosphere has been carried out by single scattering inversion methods. For clear inhomogeneous atmosphere in visible spectral region the use of Klett's inversion method leads to a reduction of about 10% of the retrieval values in lower 30 km atmospheric slab as compared with the initial data. Influence of transparent multilayered cirrus clouds results in a reduction of the retrieval extinction coefficient varying between 30-50%.

Date Published: 21 December 1994
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 2312, Optics in Atmospheric Propagation and Random Phenomena, (21 December 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.197363

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2312:
Optics in Atmospheric Propagation and Random Phenomena
Anton Kohnle; Adam D. Devir, Editor(s)