A feature detection and extinction

A feature detection and extinction retrieval (FEX) algorithm for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program’s (ARM) Raman lidar (RL) has been developed. Presented here is Part II of the FEX algorithm: the retrieval of cloud and aerosol extinction profiles. The directly retrieved extinction profiles using the Raman method are supplemented by other retrieval methods developed for elastic backscatter lidars. Portions of features where the extinction-to-backscatter ratios (i.e., lidar ratios) can be obtained are used to infer the lidar ratios for the regions where no such estimate can be made. When neither directly retrieved nor an inferred value can be determined, a climatological lidar ratio is used. This best-estimate approach results in the need to use climatological lidar ratios for less than about 5% of features, except for thin cirrus at the ARM tropical western Pacific Darwin site, where above 12 km, about 20% of clouds use a climatological lidar ratio. A classification of feature type is made, guided by the atmosphere’s thermodynamic state and the feature’s scattering properties: lidar ratio, backscatter, and depolarization. The contribution of multiple scattering is explicitly considered for each of the ARM RL channels. A comparison between aerosol optical depth from FEX and that from collocated sun photometers over multiple years at two ARM sites shows an agreement (in terms of bias error) of about −0.3% to −4.3% (relative to the sun photometer).