Elevated near-surface Ångström exponent peaks from dual-wavelength CLADS over the North China Plain

This dataset provides dual-wavelength (405/532 nm) CLADS retrievals of aerosol extinction and Ångström exponent (AE) profiles at Gucheng, Hebei Province, on the North China Plain, collected during seven nocturnal periods of the McFAN intensive campaign in November 2018. CLADS is an imaging (side-scatter) lidar that resolves the near-surface layer that conventional pulsed lidars often miss. The products support the manuscript *Elevated near-surface Ångström exponent peaks from dual-wavelength CLADS over the North China Plain*, which documents a recurrent elevated AE maximum near about 110–230 m while extinction remains highest at the surface. The files contain the numerical values needed to reproduce the main figures and tables and the supporting analyses: time–height AE sections, night-mean and composite vertical profiles of AE and dual-wavelength extinction, near-surface extinction comparison against co-located dry nephelometer estimates (Table 1 and validation scatter data), and SI statistics on AE spectral checks, SSA and dual-channel sensitivity, near-field surface reference, and reference-layer SNR. All times are on the campaign local-time (UTC+8) day-of-year axis shared with the McFAN surface optics. Extinction is reported in Mm⁻¹ and AE is dimensionless for the 405/532 nm pair. Users interested in near-surface haze structure, multi-wavelength lidar assumptions, or air-quality-relevant vertical decoupling of loading and size-sensitive optics on the North China Plain may reuse these products under the license stated on this Zenodo record; please cite both the related article and this dataset.