Lidar monitoring of regions of intense backscatter with poorly defined boundaries

The upper height of a region of intense backscatter with a poorly defined boundary between this region and a region of clear air above it is found as the maximal height where aerosol heterogeneity is detectable, that is, where it can be discriminated from noise. The theoretical basis behind the retrieval technique and the corresponding lidar-data-processing procedures are discussed. We also show how such a technique can be applied to one-directional measurements. Examples of typical results obtained with a scanning lidar in smoke-polluted atmospheres and experimental data obtained in an urban atmosphere with a vertically pointing lidar are presented.