For monitoring the atmospheric aerosol, a micropulse lidar (MPL) system was developed by Shandong Academy of Sciences Institute of Oceanographic Instrumentation (SDIOI) to investigate structural and optical properties of clouds and aerosol. The structure and main technical parameters of the MPL are introduced. The transmitter is based on a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser which delivers up to 6 μJ pulse energy at a pulse repetition rate of 2.5 kHz. The receiver utilizes a commercial 20 cm diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a 0.5 nm narrowband interference filter, and a photon counting PMT detector. The system observed tropospheric atmospheric aerosol of Qingdao and the results show that the system can measure the tropospheric aerosol continuously and well reflect the space and time distribution of aerosol.