An all sky camera is a specialized camera used in meteorology and astronomy for capturing a photograph of the entire sky. In meteorological applications, whole sky cameras are used to study cloud cover, the current level of UV radiation, fractional cloud coverage, sky polarization, the computation of cloud base height and wind speed at cloud heights.

The model of the instrument is OMEA 8C produced by the Alcor System, it uses a fisheye lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image, in addition thanks to its high sensitivity, this system can record a very good image quality of the sky during daytime and nighttime.

It mounts a Color sensor, the detector resolution is 4600 x 3520 pixels, and the field of view is 180° x 180°, with a pixel scale of 2.9 arcmin/pix. Infrared light (>680 nm) and UV light is blocked (<420 nm). The pixel size is 3.8μm. The All Sky Camera software is Sky Watch, it allows to control the Camera and the Weather Station.

The instrument records internal relative humidity and temperature and two basic external weather parameters: relative humidity and external temperature. In addition, the Camera has a weather station optional module which can be supplied to measure weather parameters as:
<ul>
<li>Wind speed</li>
<li>Wind direction</li>
<li>Pressure</li>
</ul>
All weather data is recorded in readable file for archive and site statistics.

PI: Anna Maria Iannarelli, <a href=”annamaria.iannarelli@serco.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>annamaria.iannarelli@serco.com</a>