Lufft ceilometers used in large meteo networks of DWD & KNMI

In 2015, two big tenders were won by Lufft – one from the “KNMI” (Dutch Royal Weather Service), and the other one from the biggest German Weather Service “DWD” (“Deutscher Wetterdienst”). Both of them were looking for a cloud height sensor capable of measurements up to 12 kilometers into the sky. 

The Lufft CHM 15k can detect different cloud layers which are even up to 15 kilometers high. Through the tenders both weather services found the right sensors to renew or extend their existing measurement network. Thereby KNMI replaces 39 devices over a time period of two years. The DWD installs more than 100 ceilometers over the upcoming years.

The weather services use the ceilometers for different fields of application and supply corresponding customer groups with the collected measurement data. These include civil and military airport managers, flight weather consultants and users of environmental measurement technology as well as climate researchers. Further areas are research about the atmospheric particle distribution and the determination of mixing layer depths. Furthermore they are useful for the improvement of weather forecast models, which are fed with additional air pollution data. Through this, e.g. heavy rain can be better predicted. KNMI has similar customer groups but are more focused on the offshore use, where cloud formations due to increasing air traffic is an important information for oil, wind and assembly platforms.