Kolkata: Now, device to get data on clouds over airport

Representative image

Moneycontrol News

The Department of Meteorology at Kolkata airport will soon install a laser Ceilometer, a device to accurately measure the distance between the runway and the base of a cloud over the airport. Kolkata is among six major airports in the country where this laser ceilometer will be installed.

As per a report by The Times Of India, work has begun to install this instrument and a team from Pune will carry out the installation. This new instrument will be helpful during monsoon and winter, when low cloud and fog reduces visibility and affects flight landing.

It will be installed at the northern end of the runway and will emit a laser pulse into the atmosphere. With the help of light detection and ranging technology it transmits low power laser pulses into the atmosphere that detects and returns from the clouds and aerosols above the instrument. The altitude of the cloud in this instrument will be determined by the speed of the light.

Till now the estimations were generally based on experience, or tracked by an instrument named Theodolite. Sometimes red balloons are also released, Balloons are filled with a gas whose rate of ascent is known. Its velocity is then multiplied by the time it takes to disappear into the cloud. These weather ceilometers will give the accurate measurement of the low cloud with very rare chances of any error.

There are many other instruments installed at Kolkata airport to keep an eye on every type of weather condition but this instrument to get accurate meteorological data of low cloud hangings is very important for safe flight operations.