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A high-precision measuring system for atmospheric visibility based on a multi-reflection cell

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Abstract

Visibility high-precision measurement has a wide range of applications in the field of aviation and navigation. This paper proposes and designs a visibility measuring system based on a multi-reflection cell. In terms of the definition of the meteorological optical range (MOR), this system calculates the distance at which the beam is attenuated to 5% by means of multiple reflections with a long propagation distance, so as to obtain accurate atmospheric visibility. Different from the short-distance ring-down cavity with a length of 0.5 m, the length of the multi-reflection cell of this system can reach more than 10 m. Compared with the traditional transmissive method, the calculation results are more in line with the real situation of the atmospheric environment because the atmospheric non-uniformity and inversion parameters are considered. Experiments show that this method has better robustness and can stably measure atmospheric visibility under the condition of limited equipment space with an error of 5%.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support by “Scientific Research Program of Tianjin Municipal Education Commission (2021KJ033)” and “National Key R&D Program of China(2020YFB1600101 and 2020YFB1600103).”

Funding

Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Commission, 2021KJ033, Meng Li

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Operation Programming & Safety Technology of Air Traffic Management. Civil Aviation, University of China, Tianjin, 300300, China

    Meng Li, Suyue Liu, Yuzhao Ma & Ning Fu

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  1. Meng Li
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  2. Suyue Liu
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  3. Yuzhao Ma
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  4. Ning Fu
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Correspondence to Meng Li.

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Li, M., Liu, S., Ma, Y. et al. A high-precision measuring system for atmospheric visibility based on a multi-reflection cell. Opt Rev 31, 8–16 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10043-023-00849-1

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