Remote sensing from Earth-observing satellites is now providing valuable information about the ocean phytoplankton distributions. This paper presents the new ocean subsurface optical properties obtained from two space-based lidars: the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite and the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) aboard Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) satellite. Obtaining reliable estimates of subsurface biomass necessitates removing instrument artifacts peculiar to each sensor; i.e., polarization crosstalk artifacts in the CALIOP signals and after pulsing effects arising from the ATLAS photodetectors. We then validate the lidar retrieved optical properties with MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean color measurements and autonomous biogeochemical Argo float profiles. Our results support the continued use of present and future spaceborne lidars to study the global plankton system and characterize its vertical structures in the upper ocean.