Abstract. In support of the Aerosol, Clouds, Ecosystems missions, simulations of a spaceborne multiwavelength lidar are performed based on global model simulations of the atmosphere along a satellite orbit track. The yield for aerosol microphysical inversions is quantified and comparisons are made between the aerosol microphysics inherent in the global model and those inverted from both the model's optical data and the simulated lidar measurements, which are based on the model's optical data. We find that yield can be significantly increased if inversions based on reduced optical data are acceptable. In general, retrieval performance is better for cases where the aerosol fine mode dominates. Lack of sensitivity to coarse mode cases is found, in agreement with earlier studies. Surface area is generally the most robustly retrieved quantity. The work here points toward the need for ancillary data to aid in the constraints of the lidar inversions and also for the need for joint inversions involving lidar and polarimeter measurements.