Aeolus aerosol and cloud product

Aeolus is a high-spectral resolution UV lidar. It implements two detection channels, a broadband (Rayleigh channel) and a narrowband (Mie channel). Carefully calibrated, the combination offers the possibility to derive independent estimates of the backscatter and extinction coefficients of the clouds and the aerosols, thus opening the possibility to acquire an information on their nature with the extinction-to-backscatter ratio. The presentation will show how the level-2A processor of the mission works for the retrieval of optical properties of cloud and aerosol particles, what products can be obtained with what limitations. The potential of L2A processor will be illustrated by results obtained on real data acquired since AEOLUS launch.