The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) onboard the International Space Station (ISS), is a lidar system providing vertically resolved aerosol and cloud profiles since February 2015. In this study, the CATS aerosol product is validated against the aerosol profiles provided by the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). This validation activity is based on collocated CATS-EARLINET measurements and the comparison of the particle backscatter coefficient at 1064nm.

By means of available ice nucleating particle (INP) parameterization schemes we compute profiles of dust INP number concentration utilizing Polly-XT and CALIPSO lidar observations during the INUIT-BACCHUS-ACTRIS 2016 campaign. The polarization-lidar photometer networking (POLIPHON) method is used to separate dust and non-dust aerosol backscatter, extinction, mass concentration, particle number concentration (for particles with radius > 250 nm) and surface area concentration. The INP final products are compared with aerosol samples collected from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and analyzed using the ice nucleus counter FRIDGE.