A demonstration of the Solmirus All Sky Infrared Visible Analyzer

 
Poster PDF

Authors

Victor R. Morris — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Dimitri Klebe — Solmirus Corporation

Category

Instruments

Description

The Solmirus All Sky Infrared Visible Analyzer on the Guest Instrument Facility platform at the ARM SGP site.
The Infrared Sky Imager Intercomparison Study was conducted in September 2007 at the ARM Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site to compare measurements of cloud fraction from five different types of infrared sky imagers. However, the results did not provide a clear solution for obtaining nighttime cloud fraction. After the field campaign, one of the participants, Solmirus Corporation, made significant improvements to the hardware and retrieval algorithms of their All Sky Infrared Visible Analyzer (ASIVA). A filter wheel was also added to determine color temperature from which cloud height can be estimated. The improved ASIVA was demonstrated at the SGP site from May to July 2009. The instrument captures hemispheric infrared images of the sky during both the day and night and provides values of cloud fraction and cloud height. The daytime values were compared with the operational Total Sky Imager, which provides visible images and real-time processing of daytime sky conditions.