Robust sensors for long- and short-term installations

Lowest cost. Ideal for cloud heights up to 8 km.

by Campbell Scientific

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The SkyVue 8 LIDAR ceilometer measures cloud base heights and vertical visibility for meteorological and aviation applications. Using LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) technology, the ceilometer transmits fast, low-power laser pulses (not harmful to eyes) into the atmosphere and detects backscattered returns from clouds and aerosols above the instrument. A unique, efficient, single-lens design increases optical signal-to-noise ratio and allows for larger optics in a compact package, improving accuracy and measurement performance. This approach, along with state-of-the-art electronics, provides a powerful and stable platform from which to measure cloud base heights and vertical visibility to high accuracy. The SkyVue 8 measures the atmosphere with high stability and repeatability, delivering excellent performance in even the harshest of conditions. The SkyVue 8 provides information on cloud base heights, sky condition (up to five layers), vertical visibility, and raw backscatter profiles to a range of 8 km. The unique stratocumulus calibration capability, which allows users to calibrate measurements of scatter coefficients, uses a simple and user-friendly field method, giving complete confidence in the scatter profiles reported and removes the requirement to have the unit sent back for calibration. Reliable range measurement is further assured by cross-checking two separate internal quartz clocks, eliminating the possibility of unidentified errors due to clock drift. The SkyVue 8 can be tilted at various angles up to 24 degrees. Tilting the SkyVue 8 by even a few degrees can be important, as it allows the ceilometer to resist high levels of reflection from large raindrops and frozen particles that can impair vertical-type sensors. The tilt also improves rain run-off on the ceilometer window, resulting in a much higher performance compared with vertical ceilometers. Tilting to 24 degrees also means that it can be operated anywhere in the world without the sun shining into the lens and resulting in missing data. An internal two-axis inclinometer provides automatic correction of cloud base heights at all angles, ensuring ease of installation and confidence that cloud base heights are automatically corrected throughout the lifetime of the installation. The SkyVue 8 complies with ICAO, CAA, and WMO guidance and meets or exceeds all recommendations and specifications. (This includes ICAO 9837, ICAO Annex 3, CAP 437, and CAP 746.)