At LAFO, one of the Doppler lidars is vertically oriented to observe profiles of vertical wind fluctuations and their statistics. The second Doppler lidar performs a 6-beam scan pattern to record vertical profiles of horizontal wind speed, wind direction, and turbulent fluctuations of the horizontal wind. In addition to the wind, backscatter signals are also recorded.

Brief information on the 4 images of the Doppler lidars:

1. backscatter signal up to an altitude of 10 kilometers (e.g. the cloud base can be seen in white).

2. vertical velocity (red: upwinds; blue: downwinds)

3. like 1., only as zoom up to 4,5 kilometers height

4. like 2., only as zoom up to 4.5 kilometers altitude

After loading the external content, please use the time slider to view the data of the last 2 days. Time steps further back can be selected at the end of the graph frame.

At LAFO, the default scan setting of the cloud radar is a vertical orientation.

Brief information about the 8 images of the cloud radar:

1. unfiltered signal-to-noise ratio (SNR; color scale) and melting layer (black line).

2. equivalent radar reflectivity. Signals from insects are filtered out. Large values > -20 indicate clouds and precipitation; the larger, the higher the rain rate or the larger the size of hydrometeors.

3. vertical velocity, unfiltered data (red: updrafts; green: downdrafts).

4. peak width of the filtered spectra. The larger, the wider the velocity distribution.

5. skewness of the velocity distribution

6. linear depolarization ratio (LDR) of the unfiltered data. Targets with non-spherical shape such as insects and large raindrops have high LDR values. Raindrops - which are not spherical due to air resistance - have a larger LDR than hail, which is not deformed by air resistance. The melting layer can be easily identified by larger LDR values in clouds and precipitation.

7. correlation between the complex signal of the co-polarized and the cross-polarized channel (RHO_LDR). A high target density indicates a low RHO_LDR, while a low target density indicates a high RHO_LDR. This is important because the radar reflectivity alone can be high for many small scatterers, but also for a few large scatterers. Hail can be identified by large RHO_LDR values.

8. phase difference between the co-polarized and cross-polarized channels.

After loading the external content, please use the time slider to view the data for the last 2 days. Time steps further back can be selected at the end of the graph frame.