Cloudiness Characterization in Seville Using Ceilometer Measurements

Abstract

Laser Ceilometers make use of the elastic LIDAR by emitting signals vertically in the atmosphere and analyzing the profile of the backscattered signal to detect clouds and calculate cloud-base height [1]. Due to the high temporal and vertical resolution, the data provided by the ceilometer is rather useful for solar radiation forecasting or assessing the potential of night radiative cooling of a fluid. To characterize cloudiness, we calculated the cloud occurrence and frequency distribution of cloud-base height in Seville, in a similar way to [2]. Furthermore, we analyze the backscatter signal to obtain a time series, with hourly resolution, of estimated cloud depth and cloud optical thickness that would be useful to determine the effects of clouds on solar radiation and night radiative cooling.