Vaisala CL31 Ceilometer

Vaisala Ceilometer CL31 measures cloud base height and vertical visibility in all weather – good or bad. Backscatter profiling performance and reliability in all weather conditions up to 25,000 feet (7.6 km). It is a compact and lightweight instrument for cloud base height and vertical visibility measurements. It detects three cloud layers simultaneously. The CL31 employs a pulsed diode laser LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology. The CL31 is ideal for aviation and meteorological applications.

The enhanced single-lens technology applied in the CL31 ensures excellent performance starting at a height of virtually zero. This is due to the strong and stable signal over the whole measurement range. The single-lens technology provides unsurpassed reliability during precipitation, low clouds and ground based obscurations, which are the most critical phenomena in aviation safety.

Fast measurement helps to detect thin cloud patches below a solid cloud base. The CL31 provides a full backscatter profile for data visualization and research purpose. The CL31 beam can be directed either vertically or tilted. The tilting option together with the novel optics design provides enhanced performance during precipitation by improving the protection given by the shield. In the measurement unit, a tilt angle sensor automatically corrects the measured cloud distance reading to vertical cloud base height.