INO LIDAR in Antarctica

A tropospheric depolarization LIDAR has been installed in 2008 at Concordia Base (Antarctica, DOME C, 75° S 123° E).
The instrument is "alive" within the framework of the projects TAVERN (ISAC CNR) , ICE-CAMERA & PRANA (IFAC CNR), PRE-REC & COMPASS (INO CNR)
national (Programma Nazionale Ricerche in Antartide) projects.
The LIDAR is mounted on an aluminium frame inside a shelter that is located 500 m from the mainbase, in the “Clean Air Area”.
Double optical windows flushed with pre-heated external air make the operation of the LIDAR possible in all weather conditions,
even on -80°C cold polar nights.
The LIDAR is intended to provide tropospheric profiles of aerosol and clouds every 5 minutes, 24 hours/24. The system is fully automatic. Housekeeping data and local meteo data are collected and stored together with the LIDAR data.
Data are sent to Italy for inspection on a daily basis.
Time-lapse videos of local sky conditions are also automatically collected.

Le main specs of the Concordia LIDAR are the followings:

-Laser Quantel Brio (532, lin. pol.)

-Telescope : refractive, 10 cm diameter, f/3

-Data acquisition: Licel GmbH, analog, 2 channels (532 nm p, s)

-Vertical resolution: 7.5 m

-Altitude range: 30 m -12000 m a.g.

-Webcam: analog B/W SK-1004XC/SO with 3.6 mm lens

Gallery:

(click to enlarge)






....The latest BackTrajectories:

.....An assortment of LIDAR-derived information

Quick-look Catalogue of pre-processed LIDAR data Here are all the Concordia LIDAR data collected from 2008 to 2013. The quality is variable, because of many troubles occurred to the lasers. From 2013 on we have complete yearly statistics... .... and now the instrument is the only fully automatic depolarization LIDAR in Antarctica ! ( click on the plots to enlarge) January 2013






February 2013


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December 2013







January 2012

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December 2012






January 2011





February 2011






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June 2011



January 2009




January 2008



February 2008






March 2008



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April 2008

A sample of Time-Lapse 24h/24 video of Concordia sky conditions

The high-sensitivity (0.003 Lux) SK-1004XC webcam can operate under almost stellar-light conditions

Massimo Del Guasta - National Institute of Optics (INO) - National Research Council | Via Madonna del Piano, 10 - 50019 Sesto Fiorentino - Firenze, Italy | Tel (office): +39-055-5226423 - Tel (laboratory) +39-055-5226424 | Email: Massimo Del Guasta | Web: www.ino.it | sito ottimizzato per una risoluzione minima di 1024x768 e firefox