Netherlands Cloud Height measured by Sensors from Lufft

Lufft left no stone unturned, to fulfill all requirements of the recent ceilometer tender of the Dutch royal weather service KNMI. The effort has paid off: After successfully passing of the so-called CAT (Ceilometer Acceptance Test) Lufft got the confirmation to be the selected deliverer in mid-February 2015. So, Lufft will deliver 39 cloud height sensors to the Royal Meteorological Institute in the Netherlands. The first 20 units with the name CHM 15k will be delivered in this summer and the last 19 instruments are planned for delivery in 2016.

KNMI replaces the old cloud height measurement equipment currently used in the meteorological observation network with the new Lufft technology. One of the many requirements was that the Ceilometers must be able to measure in a range of 7.5 kilometers up to 12 kilometers from the surface. The CHM 15k has the power to detect cloud even up to 15 kilometers - one further convincing argument besides the best price-performance ratio with which competitor products could be outmaneuvered. The launch of the tender was the seventh in May 2014 and it took almost a year to the decision.

The KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) was founded in 1854 by royal order of King Willem III. In 1897 it moved from Utrecht to De Bilt. Its 345 employees are also responsible for the daily weather forecast throughout the Netherlands, for climate research as well as seismology. It supplies the Royal Dutch Air Force (KLU), the Royal Dutch Navy (KM), the national air traffic control (LVNL) and the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment with weather data. This KNMI is a very important meteorological customer.

The business area "Optical Sensors" at Lufft exists since April 2014 and is a former area of ESW GmbH, one of the Jenoptik Defense & Civil Systems belonging to a subsidiary of Jenoptik AG, Jena. Following the acquisition by the dedicated measurement and control and measurement technology company Lufft, the survival and development of high-quality Ceilometers and snow depth sensors SHM 50 and SHM 30 is secured. This still happens in Berlin, where the development, distribution and management of the optical sensors are located, but in new premises.

This was already the second success after the German Weather Service DWD contract  where Lufft won the bidding process within a very short time with the CHM 15k cloud height sensor. The current successes of the new Lufft products show that the medium-sized company located in Fellbach, Germany, is the right partner for weather measurement technology.