Description:

Cloud optical and microphysical properties are essential for understanding cloud radiative effects, cloud-aerosol interactions, and dynamical processes that are key to understanding cloud feedbacks in a changing climate. Spaceborne and sub-orbital lidar instruments have been utilized for studying cloud properties for decades, especially optically thin ice clouds below the detection limits of cloud radars and passive cloud sensors. Analysis of new lidar cloud observations, specifically when combined with in situ or other remote sensing observations, are critical to understanding the relationships between the structure and microphysical properties of these clouds, cloud processes that impact radiative properties, and thermodynamic drivers of cloud evolution. Case studies and contributions from spaceborne lidar instruments (CALIPSO, CATS, ICESat-2, and EarthCARE) and recent field campaigns (IMPACTS, OLYMPEX, ACTIVATE, and CPEX-CV) are encouraged.