Dataset
Met Office Cardington: cloud height measurements from a Impulsphysik LD40 Laser Ceilometer, 2010-2014
Abstract
The Met Office Observation-based research Boundary Layer Facility, at the semi-rural field site (18 Ha) of Cardington (52° 06′ N, 00° 25′ W, 29 m ± 1 m amsl) in central-southern England between 2004 and 2024, operated the Impulsphysik LD40 Ceilometer between 2009-2014.
The LD40 Laser Ceilometer is a general-purpose cloud height sensor employing LIDAR technology for detection of clouds, precipitation and other obstructions to vision. The LD40 operates according to the Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) principle. It transmits short pulses of laser light which are scattered back to the instrument from atmospheric targets. The distance of the targets from the instrument is determined by the time delay between the transmission and reception of a pulse. The instrument is vertically-pointing (zenith angle=0) and so the distance gives a measure of the altitude of the targets above ground-level.
The LD40 provides reliable determination of cloud height up to 13 km. It is designed to detect up to three possible cloud layers.
A full list of NetCDF variables can be found in "Continuous meteorological surface and soil records (2004-2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK." Osborne et al. ESSD (2025). This paper should be referenced in any research/publications pertaining to this dataset.
To ensure optimal traceability and transparency of data, comprehensive metadata is included.
Details
| Previous Info: |
No news update for this record
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| Previously used record identifiers: |
No related previous identifiers.
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| Access rules: |
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use of these data is covered by the following licence(s): http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record. |
| Data lineage: |
Data were collected by the Met Office Meteorological Research Unit, Cardington, during its operational period. These data have been standardised for the production of this dataset, following similar file metadata conventions for all associated datasets within the continuous hydro-meteorological record (2004-2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK Dataset Collection, as described more fully within Osborne et al., (2025). This standardisation approach addressed, where possible, any known data and metadata issues. Data were then deposited at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) for long-term archival. |
| Data Quality: |
Data are as given by the data provider. Please see Osborne et al., (2025) for a description of quality control and assurance applied (see online resources). No quality control has been performed by the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).
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| File Format: |
Data are NetCDF formatted
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Related Documents
Process overview
Instrument/Platform pairings
| Met Office Cardington: Impulsphysik LD40 Ceilometer | Deployed on: Met Office Meteorological Research Unit, Cardington |
| Output Description | None |
- units: m
- standard_name: cloud_base_altitude
- var_id: cloud_level1
- long_name: Altitude of first cloud layer detected
- units: m
- var_id: cloud_level2
- long_name: Altitude of second cloud layer detected
- units: m
- var_id: cloud_level3
- long_name: Altitude of third cloud layer detected
- units: m
- var_id: height
- long_name: Height above ceilometer
- units: m
- var_id: max_range_detection
- long_name: Maximum range of detection
- units: m
- var_id: cloud_penetration_depth1
- long_name: Penetration depth of laser beam into first cloud layer
- units: m
- var_id: cloud_penetration_depth2
- long_name: Penetration depth of laser beam into second cloud layer
- units: m
- var_id: cloud_penetration_depth3
- long_name: Penetration depth of laser beam into third cloud layer
- units: 1
- var_id: rain
- long_name: Rain indicator
- units: m
- long_name: Vertical visibility
- var_id: vert_vis
- var_id: backscatter
- units: m-1 sr-1
- long_name: backscatter
- var_id: time
- units: hours
- long_name: time of data point
Co-ordinate Variables
Temporal Range
2010-07-06T00:00:00
2014-08-04T23:59:59
Geographic Extent
52.1047° |
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-0.4216° |
-0.4216° |
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52.1047° |