The characteristics and applications of the newly developed scanning micro pulse lidar(MPLAS) are presented. The data process of MPL-AS is discussed and some of the initial experiment results are discussed. The ρ(PM₁₀) horizontal profiles by using the correlation of aerosol extinction and ρ(PM₁₀) are also obtained. The results show that MPL-AS can be applied to automate monitoring of city atmospheric environment to obtain aerosol distribution of the monitoring area. The MPL-AS is a portable, compact and continuous-working lidar, it is a new efficient instrument for atmospheric environment monitoring.