Documentation
Supported ALCs
The following ALCs are supported:
- Lufft CHM 15k
- Sigma Space MiniMPL
- Vaisala CL31
- Vaisala CL51
- CALIPSO/CALIOP (lidar simulation only)
Vaisala CL31, CL51
Type: cl3
, cl5
Vaisala CL31 and CL51 are ceilometers which use near-infrared wavelength of 910 nm. The instruments
store backscatter in DAT files. These can be converted to NetCDF
with the alcf convert cl51 <input> <output>
command, where <input>
and <output>
are input and output directories, respectively. The NetCDF files
can then be used as input to the alcf auto lidar
and alcf lidar
commands.
Alternatively, you can use the tool cl2nc
to convert DAT files to NetCDF.
The 910-nm wavelength band used by CL31 and CL51 is affected by water vapour absorption lines (Wiegner et al., 2019). The ALCF currently does not support simulating water vapour absorption, and it is not taken into account in the calibration process.
Sigma Space MiniMPL
Type: mpl
(mpl2nc
)
Sigma Space MiniMPL is a lidar which use visible wavelength of 532 nm. The instrument
stores backscatter in MPL files. These can be converted to NetCDF using
the SigmaMPL software. The NetCDF files can then be used as input to the
alcf auto lidar
and alcf lidar
commands. The tool
mpl2nc can also convert MPL files
to NetCDF. Use the lidar type mpl2nc
with alcf auto lidar
and alcf lidar
to process data from mpl2nc.
Lufft CHM 15k
Type: chm15k
Lufft CHM 15k is a ceilometer which uses near-infrared wavelength of 1064 nm. The instrument
stores backscatter in NetCDF files, which can be used directly with the ALCF
commands alcf auto lidar
and alcf lidar
without conversion.
CALIPSO/CALIOP
Type: caliop
CALIOP is a spaceborne lidar on board of the CNES-NASA satellite CALIPSO.
The ALCF supports lidar simulation of a spaceborne lidar at 532 nm, i.e. it can
produce simulated backscatter profiles from atmospheric model data. Therefore,
this lidar type can be used with alcf simulate
and alcf auto model
,
but not with alcf lidar
or alcf auto lidar
.