A new technique for measuring atmospheric aerosol characteristics using YAG lidar with iodine cell filter has been developed in the world. The theoretical analysis of the YAG lidar system was given and experimental YAG lidar system was built with 300 mm aperture receiving telescope and 150 mJ YAG laser pulse energy, assessment of the lidar system performance was given through numerical simulations and primary experiments. Backscattering signals from atmosphere were measured. The data measured show that theoretical analysis and experiment results are coincident.