A Scheme to Classify Clouds with the Depolarization Ratio andBackscattering Coeffcient Measured by Lidar

The optical properties of clouds were measured with a polarization Mie lidar during April, 2004 and investigated to categorize the particles detected by the lidar. The cloud layers were categorized into five types according to the depolarization ratios, as follows: (I) constant and small (less than 5%); increasing with height (II) nearly from 0% and (III) from about 50%; (IV) large and varying with the backscattering coefficient; and (V) sharply decreasing. This categorization of clouds enabled us to separate aerosols from clouds in a lidar signal. Comparison of the backscattering coefficients between clouds of types (I) and (II) suggested that the depolarization ratio induced by multiple scattering in dense clouds does not depend on the particle density. Estimation of the particle phase for the five cloud categories was also examined.