Applications for Vaisala Lidar Ceilometer CL61 with depolarization

1. Introduction

Ceilometers are robust and cost-effective lidar-based remote sensing instruments. In addition to their traditional use in detecting cloud base heights in aviation, ceilometers are increasingly used for vertical atmospheric profiling for several applications. Attenuated backscatter profiles are used for cloud, boundary-layer, and elevated aerosol layer profiling. Further addition of depolarization ratio profiling allows straightforward identification of liquid and ice clouds, precipitation type, and melting layer, as well as improved potential for monitoring aerosols, smoke, dust, and volcanic ash. High-end profiling ceilometers can be operated unattended in networks to provide highly detailed atmospheric information.

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