An Automated Cloud Observation System Acos

Analysis of cloud base height data collected during a seven-month period from a three Rotating Beam Ceilometer (RBC) network on Otis AFB, Massachusetts, demonstrated the accuracy of an automated cloud observation system. The high degree of correspondence between the automated and human observations of cloud height, low cloud amount, multiple cloud layers, and ceiling confirms the accuracy of the hierarchical clustering technique when applied to a network of RBC's confined to the immediate environs of an airfield. Tests demonstrated only slight improvements in automated cloud observation are realized by incorporating additional information from a second and third RBC on or near an airfield.