WEATHER AID

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 19

WEATHER AID

Ceilometer At Airport

A new weather aid is expected to be in use at the meteorological office at Christchurch airport next month. It is a ceilometer which, as its name implies, is used for measuring cloud ceilings. The chief observer at the meteorological office (Mr A K. Brown) explained that the equipment had a photo-elec-tric cell capable of sending a beam into cloud at a height of 10,000 ft Beams would be positioned at either end of the main instrument runway. Information from the beams would be recorded graphically on a machine in the forecast room, said Mr Brown. From the graph it would be possible to tell the height of the base of the cloud. “It is a continuous trace. There is no stopping and starting IL” he said. Mr Brown said that it was an observational rather than a forecasting aid. Previously, cloud ceiling was measured by visual estimation, by the use of balloons, and on reports from aircraft The ceilometer was better and more accurate.

Although capable of recording cloud base up to 10,000 ft, the ceilometer would be far more useful in recording critical bases below 1000 ft. This information would be of paramount iihportance to pilots when landing. Technicians from the Department of Civil Aviation are installing the ceilometer. Similar equipment is already in use at Mangere and Dunedin.