The power of the images:

Lidar backscatter images such as these show detailed structure of the cloud-free, and sometimes cloudy, parts of the atmosphere. Pollution particles, dust, smoke, thin clouds and fog, are detected and the resulting images often provide clues to the structure of the atmosphere such as boundary layer depth, inversion height, stability, gravity wave period, cloud base altitude, etc. In some cases you can judge whether the air is turbulent or stratified. Because Boulder, Colorado, lies against the Rocky Mountains and in an urban corridor, we usually observe complex atmospheric structure.