With a Rayleigh and Mie scattering lidar, installed at the Central University in Chung-Li, Taiwan (25 ¿N, 121 ¿E), we studied the high clouds, aerosols, and temperatures of the atmosphere in the 15--60 km region since July, 1993. High clouds located near the tropopause were observed consistently. The clouds had stable structure and persisted for hours. One of the clouds presented had a height of 15.6 km and a thickness of 613 m. They were probably grown in the extremely cold environment of the tropical tropopause. The stratospheric aerosol layer has been found with structure which is caused by the dynamics of the tropical winds. Temperature measurements derived from Rayleigh scattering in the range 30--60 km have provided the temperature and height for the stratopause. The effect of temperature fluctuation on the chemical species is discussed. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1995