BeCOOL is a microlidar designed to monitor high clouds from stratospheric balloons. From October 2021 to January 2022, three of these instruments have been flown along the equator, gathering hundreds of hours of high-resolution nighttime lidar profiles. Case studies of collocated observations with CALIOP, and statistical comparisons, highlight the very good agreement between the two lidars and the enhanced sensitivity of BeCOOL to ultra thin clouds. Future observation campaigns involving this instrument could be an opportunity for calibration/validation of upcoming space-borne lidar missions such as Earthcare or AOS.
Lesigne et al. (2026) studied this question.