20th May 2004

MetEngUK installs Vaisala visibility measurement system at RAF Wyton

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary Air Support Unit is based at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. Following on from the installation of a Vaisala CT25K laser ceilometer at the ASU base in February 2003, a Vaisala FS11 forward scatter visibility meter was today installed and commissioned by a MetEngUK engineer.

The state-of-the-art system provides reliable and accurate instantaneous and 10-minute mean ‘meteorological optical range’, or horizontal visibility data, on an easy-to-read display in the ASU Operations Room, 24 hours per day.

Together with accurate cloud base height data provided by the laser ceilometer, information from this additional equipment will substantially help to maintain safe helicopter operations in marginal weather conditions.