In order to analyze the location error caused by atmospheric refraction, the vertical profiles of atmospheric refractive index are deduced based on the rotation Raman lidar return signals, and then, the elevation angle error and range error at different altitude are corrected according to the error correcting theory for target positioning. The results indicate that the target elevation angle error and range error decrease as the visual angle increases at the same altitude. When the visual angle is 10^o, the elevation angle error of the target at 10 km reaches 4.49' and the range error is 10.37 m. When the visual angle increases to 40^o, the elevation angle error of the target at the same altitude is only 1.19' and the range error is only 2.80 m. These analysis results have a certain reference value for the correction of target positioning error.