The optical and microphysical properties of ice clouds and dust aerosols are fundamental to the understanding the radiative impact of these atmospheric constituents, which also pose a significant challenge to the atmospheric research community. In this talk, we will discuss the inference of the optical and microphysical properties of ice clouds and dust aerosols from satellite observations and modeling capabilities; particularly, we will use the observations made by the A-train sensors and focus on the consistency and issues revealed by the retrieval results based on active and passive sensors.