This study reviews the historical development process of spaceborne Li DAR for atmospheric detection along with the major achievements to date. The future plan with regard to this technology is investigated as well. First

we review the history of several successfully launched spaceborne Li DARs

beginning with the first spaceborne Li DAR technology experiment LITE. Then

we expound on the primary achievements in the field of atmospheric remote sensing

particularly in terms of climatic and environmental changes

and highlight numerical prediction model studies based on spaceborne Li DARs

such as LITE and CALIOP. Existing achievements include（ 1） the global aerosol vertical structure and its attendant radiative forcing

（ 2） the global cloud vertical structure and its associated features

（ 3） aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction

and（ 4） the applications of aerosol vertical data in the numerical prediction of fog / haze and dust. We intensively analyze future demands and challenges in terms of atmospheric wind field detection and atmospheric constituent retrieval from a spaceborne Li DAR. With respect to wind field retrieval

a spaceborne Li DAR may enhance the accuracy of weather forecasts in tropical regions

improve the nowcasting of small-scale and mesoscale weather under the nongeostrophic condition

and fill in the gaps with regard to monitoring an upper / lower level jet stream.Li DARs also have competitive advantages over traditional passive sensors with regard to atmospheric constituent retrieval because of the former’s high signal-to-noise ratio

unique CO2 vertical structure

and nighttime detection capability. Finally

the spaceborne Li DAR may be used to measure global wind field and atmospheric constituents.