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The existence of a persistent layer in the lowermost stratosphere in the Asian Monsoon region is well-known and has been observed by satellites and also in situ by balloon-borne sensors. This aerosol layer has been observed to persist every year by both SAGE sensors and by CALIOP, between the tropopause and the lower boundary of the Junge stratospheric sulfate layer. But how does this layer form and why? Apparently, aerosols are lofted by convection form the Indian and Asian continents, into the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) area in the middle of a persistent anticyclone associate with the Asian summer monsoon. But some mysteries remain. The top of this aerosol layer is well above the altitude of maximum convective outflow, so why is the top of the aerosol layer so high? Are the aerosols coming from China or from India? And finally, is there an observable impact of these aerosol on thin cirrus distributions in the UT/LS? We explore the interesting difference in altitude between the ATAL layer and the convective cloud top height, using observations from CALIOP and from SAGE. In the process of doing this we examine the accuracy of both CALIOP and SAGE cloud/aerosol discrimination, and the impact of various averaging lengths. We compare the apparent "observational tropopause" with observations from COSMIC, CALIOP (clouds), and with modeled interpolation from MERRA-2. We also compare CALIOP and CloudSat daytime cloud top heights for convective clouds with the vertical aerosol distribution, and evaluate convection in this region as represented by MERRA-2. Finally, and maybe most importantly we compare convective cloud top heights and temperatures with diurnal variability during the most recent years by using observations from the geostationary Himawari satellite. How representative are the twice-daily A-Train observations, when compared to the natural diurnal variability of convection? The goal is to establish the origins of these UT/LS aerosols, whether these aerosol distributions can be completely explained by convective transport, and to evaluate convective lofting of aerosol by models. Ultimately, the convective lofting of aerosols as modeled is needed to explain the Asian Monsoon aerosol distributions. The observations contribute much-needed information to enhance the model accuracy.