How to accurately calibrate the lidar data about haze in the presence of some cloud layers over the haze has always been a subject to be solved for data inversion of Mie scattering lidar. It is difficult for laser to penetrate the haze and clouds simultaneously, so the backscattering signal of lidar cannot be calibrated by using a clear air layer when the haze is under the low clouds. For the portable Mie scattering lidar with a detecting range of less than 6 km, it is also difficult to calibrate the lidar signals by using a clear air layer. An iterative algorithm for aerosol extinction coefficient is proposed based on the characteristics of the Fernald forward integral equation in this paper. By specific settings for the inversion process, the difference between the inversion value and the expected one of aerosol extinction coefficient is reduced after each iteration. After several iterations, the difference between the inversion value and the expected one of aerosol extinction coefficient is small enough to be negligible.

The disadvantage of the iterative algorithm for aerosol extinction coefficient is that the inversion results are affected by the overlap factor of lidar. The errors of lidar overlap factor measured experimentally at different times are slightly different. However, the influence about the overlap factor of lidar measured experimentally at different times on the inversion results is slightly different when the iterative algorithm for aerosol extinction coefficient is used to calculate aerosol extinction coefficient.

The results of preliminary calculation show that the iterative algorithm of aerosol extinction coefficient can accurately reproduce aerosol extinction coefficient profile without needing calibration of the lidar data. For the haze detection signal that cannot be calibrated by a clear air layer, the vertical distribution of the haze extinction coefficient can be accurately retrieved by the iterative algorithm for aerosol extinction coefficients. The vertical distribution of aerosol extinction coefficients can also be accurately retrieved by using the iterative algorithm of aerosol extinction coefficients for the Mie backscattering lidar data with the measuring height less than 6 km. Through comparative analysis and research, it is found that for the same lidar data, the aerosol extinction coefficient obtained by the iterative algorithm for aerosol extinction coefficient is closer to the actual value than that by the slope method.