We evaluate the comparability of aerosol and cloud vertically resolved optical properties obtained with varying lidar profiling techniques and/or data processing methodologies. The discrepancies are assessed by evaluating climate-sensitive direct radiative effects, computed by radiative transfer code means. Results show important discrepancies up to 0.8 W m⁻² due to lidar data smoothing in cirrus clouds and a 0.05 W m⁻² difference between Raman and elastic lidar technique on a dust layer aloft.