Cloud Camera

To document a visual image of the weather situation two camera systems are integrated into KITcube. Each of it is equipped with two image sensors with different lenses. A sky image is taken with a 180° fisheye lens covering the upper hemisphere, and an addition landscape image is taken with an 90° wide angle lens orientated horizontally.  A new cloud camera system is joining the camera pool during 2018 extending the measurement capabilities to infrared sky images. These IR images allow the derivation of cloud base heights when temperature profiles are available e.g. from radiosoundings.

                                     Fig.1: Location of the cloud camera

Pictures of the cloud camera:

Technical specifications:

Manufacturer: MOBOTIX AG
Device type: S14D FlexMount   /  S15D FlexMount
Resolution: 3 MP (2048 x 1536) /  6 MP (3072 x 2048) visual, (336 x 252) thermal (IR)
Control: Digital zoom, numerical rectification for optical effects of fisheye lens