Infrared lidar observations of stratospheric aerosols

We observed the stratospheric aerosol layer at 34° north latitude with a photon-counting 1574 nm lidar on three occasions in 2011. During all of the observations, we also operated a nearby 523.5 nm micropulse lidar and acquired National Weather Service upper air data. We analyzed the lidar data to find scattering ratio profiles and the integrated aerosol backscatter at both wavelengths and then calculated the color ratio and wavelength exponent for lidar backscattering from the stratospheric aerosols. The visible-light integrated backscatter values of the layer were in the range 2.8-3.5×10⁻⁴ sr⁻¹ and the infrared integrated backscatter values ranged from 2.4 to 3.7×10⁻⁵  sr⁻¹. The wavelength exponent was determined to be 1.9±0.2.