The EarthCARE lidar cloud and aerosol profile processor (A-PRO): the A-AER, A-EBD, A-TC, and A-ICE products

Abstract

ATLID (ATmospheric LIDar) is the lidar flown on the multi-instrument Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE). EarthCARE is a joint ESA–JAXA mission that was launched in May 2024. ATLID is a three-channel, linearly polarized, high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) system operating at 355 nm. Cloud and aerosol optical properties are key EarthCARE products. This paper provides an overview of the ATLID Level 2a (L2a; i.e., single instrument) retrieval algorithms being developed and implemented in order to derive cloud and aerosol optical properties. The L2a lidar algorithms that retrieve the aerosol and cloud optical property profiles and classify the detected targets are grouped together in the so-called A-PRO (ATLID-profile) processor. The A-PRO processor produces the ATLID L2a aerosol product (A-AER); the extinction, backscatter, and depolarization product (A-EBD); the ATLID L2a target classification product (A-TC); and the ATLID L2a ice microphysical estimation product (A-ICE). This paper provides an overview of the processor and its component algorithms.