In a laser target positioning system, to correct the location error is essential for improving the measurement precision. In this paper, a novel method of correcting the tropospheric target location error in utilizing pure rotation lidar is presented. The vertical profiles of atmospheric refractive index are deduced by the pure rotation return signals of N2 and O2, which are detected by the pure Raman lidar. Then, the refraction angle and elevation orientation errors at different altitude are corrected based on error correcting theory. The results indicate that the target location error are well corrected by making use of the atmospheric refractive index which is detected by pure rotation lidar. At the same altitude, the target refraction angle and elevation orientation errors decrease as the visual angle increases. When the visual angle is 10°, the refraction angle of the target at 8 km reaches 3.15′ and the elevation orientation error is 14.55 m. When it is 30°, the refraction angle of the target at the same altitude is only 0.98′ and the elevation orientation error is 1.19 m.