Juan Carlos Antuña, René Estevan Arredondo, Boris Barja González and Roberto Aroche

Lidar Station, Camagüey Meteorological Center, Meteorological Institute, Cuba

Stratospheric aerosol lidar measurements at Camagüey (21° 24' N, 77° 51' W), have been conducted under volcanic and not volcanic conditios. Those measurements cover the periods before, during, and after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Several applications have been reported using de information provided by the lidar. TOMS aerosol determination made use of our lidar information for improving their retrieval. GCM aerosol parametrization for modeling the Mt. Pinatubo climatic effect also used our lidar measurements. Also using those measurements we conducting an intercomparison with SAGE II coincident measurements during the Pinatubo period as well as during background aerosol conditions. Presently a partial modernization of the lidar has been conducted. It covers the lidar acquisition and control systems, both in the hardware and software. Several features of the instrument will be upgraded