The VAISALA Ceilometer CL51 mounted on the roof of Neumayer-Station is able to measure cloud heights and vertical backscatter profiles. Short, powerful laser pulses are sent out in a vertical direction every 15 seconds. The reflection of light, backscatter - caused for example by fog, precipitation and clouds - is measured and results in a backscatter profile.

From 2009-02-09 till 2011-01-15 15:50 UTC a CL31 with a range up to 7500 m was in use.  It was replaced by a CL51 (maximum range 13000 m) measuring since 2011-01-15 20:05 UTC. The raw data are available at www.pangaea.de.

The near real time backscatter profiles of the last 24 hours are presented here. They are processed and updated every hour at Neumayer. The different colors mean different signal strength (cyan - low, blue - medium, red - high). The near real time cloud heights are not used automatically for the synoptic observations but used as help for the observers.