Studying seawater optical properties is of great importance in global climate change and material cycle. lidar has the ability to retrieve the profiles of seawater’s optical properties. A single-scattering lidar equation is typically a useful and effective model of lidar return. However

lidar return depends on the volume scattering function at 180° scattering angle and lidar attenuation coefficient

which makes retrieval from an equation difficult. The Fernald method is often used to retrieve backscatter lidar return with the assumption of lidar ratio. High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) can retrieve optical properties without assumption. A shipborne traditional lidar was developed to detect the vertical profile of seawater optical parameters. Experiments on seawater were conducted in the nearshore and offshore regions of the Yellow Sea. The lidar system was fixed on the front deck of a scientific survey boat. In situ optical measurements were also performed in the two regions. A simple quasi-single-scattering approximation was employed to calculate a modeled lidar return with inherent optical properties derived from the in situ measurement. The comparison of oceanographic lidar returns with modeled lidar returns using nearly coincident in situ optical properties were in perfect agreement with the nearshore and offshore regions

indicating that lidar can effectively detect seawater optical parameters. The difference between the inverse lidar attenuation coefficient and the in situ diffusion attenuation coefficient were analyzed based on the Fernald method with different lidar ratios. With the use of the calibrated lidar ratio

the lidar attenuation coefficients while sailing were obtained by using the Fernald method. A fusion algorithm based on traditional lidar data and in situ backscatter coefficient was also proposed to simulate HSRL. Then the accuracies of the Fernald method and fusion algorithm were compared. In the nearshore water column

diffuse attenuation coefficient varied from 0.15 m

−1

to 0.28 m

−1

and the maximum error of both methods was below 11%. As for the offshore water column

diffuse attenuation coefficients changed little through depths

approximately 0.1 m

−1

to 0.16 m

−1

. The maximum error of the two methods was nearly 17%. The statistical analysis showed that diffuse attenuation coefficient can be well employed both by fusion algorithm and the Fernald method (with calibrated lidar ratio). This paper described the applications of lidar for profiling the properties of upper ocean. To overcome the assumption of lidar ratio in the future while retrieving water column information from traditional lidar

the HSRL without assumption has a great advantage in the field of seawater optical parameter detection.