Laser sounding of aerosols using airborne and space facilities

The paper presents the results of laser sounding of water droplet crystal and mixed clouds carried out using an airborne lidar. A new method of determining the phase state of a cloud is described. The results are given on numerical experiments of laser sounding of various clouds using a polarization lidar for large variety of geometrical parameters of sounding schemes and optical characteristics of clouds. Numerical simulation of the results of laser sounding of aerosols from outer space for different lidar parameters and geometrical schemes of sounding is carried out using new models of vertical profiles of aerosol characteristics.