Presenting lidar surface returns as Aeolus product with the outlook on future spaceborne lidar missions including EarthCARE and Aeolus-2

We previously discovered the sensitivity of Aeolus lidar surface returns (LSR) to surface characteristics and reported very good agreement of LSR with Lambertian Equivalent Reflectances from passive remote sensing instruments for the first year of Aeolus on orbit. In this way, we provided the first evidence that active remote sensing can be used for retrieving unidirectional UV surface reflectivity. Here, as a continuation of this effort, we report the detailed methodological solutions for retrieving and evaluating LSR to be implemented as official L2A product during Phase-F of Aeolus project for its entire lifetime. Unlike our previous report that relied on detecting surface bin using our own methodology and assumptions, we now align the approach of detecting surface bins with the official Aeolus processing methodology for retrieving LSR and elaborate on the resultant differences. Besides that, we report how this successful application of atmospheric spaceborne lidar data for inferring land surface reflectivity properties can be translated for future lidar missions such as EarthCARE and Aeolus-2. On one hand, our results will briefly introduce all the details of the LSR retrieval for Aeolus with its unique and complex optical setup (highly-non nadir incidence and UV wavelength) for broad audience for the first time. On the other hand, we will shed light on the opportunities and challenges of LSR-alike retrievals for future lidar spaceborne missions, thereby trying to minimize the key methodological uncertainties associated with implementation of LSR algorithms.