A regional elastic-scattering lidar network called Asian dust and aerosol lidar observation network (AD-Net) has operated for 15 years (since 2001) in East Asia. In this network, the extinction coefficient of aerosols below an altitude of 9 km is continuously obtained when conditions are clear; the coefficient is divided into two parts: dust extinction and spherical extinction coefficients. The dust extinction coefficient has been compared with several parameters measured by other instruments and utilized by various studies, including studies on the epidemiology of Asian dust. Recent expansion of the lidar system at some observatories allows more optical parameters to be retrieved at those observatories. All AD-Net products are used for monitoring global environmental change as an activity of global atmospheric watch lidar observation network.

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35The Gobi Desert is one of the major sources of Asian dust, which influences the 36 climate system both directly and indirectly through its long-range transport by the 37 westerlies. In this desert, three ground-based lidars are operated in Dalanzadgad, 38Sainshand, and Zamyn-Uud, Mongolia. This study firstly combined these lidars into a

A ground-based lidar observation was carried out in the northwest of China to validate the space-borne lidar CALIOP on 23 March 2009. Combining backscatter profiles of the groundbased lidar and CALIOP, lidar ratio (extinction to backscattering ratio) was retrieved for 532 nm and 1064 nm wavelengths by using performance function that minimizing the difference between the ground-based lidar and CALIOP for backscattering coefficient. The correlation coefficients between them were 0.98 for 532 nm and 0.95 1064 nm, respectively. Using the retrieved lidar ratio, the color ratio and aerosol optical depth (AOD) were calculated. The observed aerosols and clouds were classified into three groups (boundary layer dust, free tropospheric aerosol and cirrus cloud) according to a relationship between color ratio and 532 nm-backscattering coefficient.

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