Help Contents
CL-VIEW

General

Overview

What's new in CL-VIEW compared to CT-VIEW

Graphics

Information boxes

Icon buttons

Printing and Copying

Ceilometer type selection

Multiple configuration files

On-line mode

Communication

Terminal

Data logging

Off-line mode

File Open

Viewing Files

Excel conversion


Overview

CL-VIEW is a graphical presentation program for cloud height and backscatter profile information measured by Vaisala's ceilometers. The measurement messages can also be stored to the hard disk of the PC.

CL-VIEW has two main operation modes: on-line mode and off-line mode. In the on-line mode, CL-VIEW is connected to the ceilometer and can be used in data collection and instant data presentation. The on-line mode is entered by opening the communication port. In the off-line mode, the stored data files can be studied in the same way as in the on-line mode. In the off-line mode, backscatter profiles can also be converted to a suitable format of Excel or a similar spreadsheet program for further studies.


Whats New in CL-VIEW
What's New in CL-VIEW compared to CT-VIEW

CL-VIEW is fully 32-bit and will run only on 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 95 and NT.

It supports all CL31 and CL51 data messages.

The sky condition window shows all 5 possible cloud layers.

Features already included in CT-VIEW V 2.0:

- Internal Terminal program

- Cloudgraphs are now scalable during on-line operation

- Optional step linear height scale

- Sky condition can now be viewed in a main window or in a separate scalable window together with cloudheights.

- Main window can be divided between cloud and backscatter graphs

- Separate ini files for every running CL-VIEW

- Viewing of multiple off line files


Graphics

The alternative graphic presentation modes are cloud intensity mode, cloud detection mode and the range and sensitivity normalized backscatter mode. Graphic screen can also be divided between cloud and backscatter mode by choosing View/Cloud Graph and Backscatter from menu. In all modes, also numerical cloud height information, the status of the ceilometer, the status of logging, and time and date are displayed on the screen. If msg2-type CL31 or CL51 data messages (21 to 28) or data message 7 of CT25K  is used also sky condition information can be viewed on the screen.

If CL31 or CL51 base messages (15, 18, 25 or 28) are received, the only available graphic presentation is the cloud detection mode. For CT-type ceilometers data messages 2 or 7 are used for graphical plotting, otherwise the only available graphic presentation is the cloud detection mode. Sky condition and cloud heights can also be viewed on a separate window.

The measured backscatter profile sent by the ceilometer is the signal path profile which is not angle corrected. The Cloud Intensity and the Backscatter graphics are drawn according to this profile. Therefore, true altitude levels are shown in the graphics only when the ceilometer is not tilted. The Cloud Detection mode uses the angle corrected cloud height detection values for plotting and shows always true altitude levels.

The grid for the graphic screen can be toggled on and off in all graphic modes. This can be done by using an icon button or the Graphics Settings menus.

Note: In the on-line mode resizing the window will resize also the graphic window but in the off-line mode the contents of the graphic window is lost. Graph can be restored by playing the data again.

Related Topics:

Altitude units

Message Interval

Cloud intensity graphics

Cloud detection graphics

Backscatter profile graphics

Sky Condition


Altitude units

CL-VIEW reads the altitude units used from the status bits of the measurement message and changes automatically to the same units that are used by the ceilometer.


Message Interval

CL-VIEW uses an automatic message interval detection. In the on-line mode, message interval seeking is performed each time the message port is opened. In the off-line mode this will be done each time a new off-line file is opened. The time axis in the cloud graphics is scaled according to the message interval.

When message interval seeking is performed, the program waits for three messages, reads them and compares their arriving times. If the intervals between messages are equally long, the interval is accepted. If the intervals deviate from each other, the program takes new massages until the intervals between three successive messages are the same.

Related Topics:

Time scale compression


Time scale compression

The time scale used in the cloud graphics can be compressed to half or one third the size of the original scale. By this function, a longer measurement period than in the normal scale can be shown on the screen. In the normal mode, each measurement profile is drawn using one vertical pixel line of the screen. In the compressed mode, there are 2 or 3 messages drawn to the same vertical pixel line. The settings can be changed in the Cloud Settings menu.


Cloud intensity graphics

The data is presented as a point graph where the intensity/colour is proportional to the strength of the return signal from that altitude. The colour versus intensity settings can be changed in the Cloud Settings menu.

On the horizontal axis in the picture there is the time, whereas on the vertical axis there is the altitude. It is also possible to select only part of the altitude scale or step-linear altitude scale to be presented on the screen. The selection can be done in the Cloud Settings menu.

If in the on-line mode the measurement message does not arrive at the interval defined in the message interval seeking procedure, the Info box will show the text "NO MESSAGE" , and in the Instant Values box the clock will stop to show the arrival time of the latest message. After that, as a new message arrives, the time axis shows the time that elapsed in the status of missing messages. This is indicated by a red line along the axis. The red line is also drawn in the off-line mode, if there are time jumps in the arriving times of the messages in the stored data file.

Related Topics:

Cloud Graph Settings


Cloud Graph Settings

The settings for the cloud height graphical window are done in the View/Cloud Graph Settings menu. The settings apply to both cloud intensity and cloud detection graphics since they use the same graphic window. The altitude scale can be linear or step linear. Step linear altitude scales are predefined, linear scale range is user definable.The colours of cloud graphics can be changed by selecting colours from a palette with the mouse and dragging them to the desired target box on the left side.


Cloud detection graphics

The cloud detection graphic is drawn according to the detection line of the measurement message. The cloud detection graphic uses the same graphical window as the cloud intensity graphic. The detected cloud height data is presented as points at the corresponding altitude level on the screen. This graphic mode is an alternative for the cloud intensity graphic mode and can be used if the only subject of interest is data of the detected cloud height level.

The window settings are similar in the cloud intensity and cloud detection modes. The size and the colour of the plotted point can be changed. Settings can be changed in the Cloud Settings menu.


Backscatter profile graphics

There are two modes for presentation of the backscatter. These modes are instant mode and averaged mode. The number of averaged messages is selectable by the user between predefined alternatives. The data is presented as a line graph. You can select both an instant value based graph and an averaged value based graph to be presented on the screen or only one of these. The instant value based graph line is drawn in black and the averaged value based graph line in green colour.

On the horizontal axis there is the backscatter intensity, and on the vertical axis there is the altitude. It is also possible to select only part of the altitude or backscatter range to be presented.

Related Topics:

Backscatter Profile  Settings


 Backscatter Profile Settings

The settings for the Backscatter profile graphics are done in the View/Backscatter Profile Settings menu.


Information boxes

On the right side of the graphic there is a numerical cloud height instant values box and optional sky condition box. On the bottom of the screen is a statusbar which shows status of logging, ceilometer status and a program state box.

The cloud height box shows date and time and the instant cloud base heights. The sky condition box shows current cloud amounts and corresponding altitudes. Sky condition and cloud heights can also be viewed on a separate window

The status box shows the ceilometer status. The normal status text is "OK". If any alarms or warnings exist, the text will change to "ALARM" or "WARN" and a red status light appears. All warnings and alarms can be viewed by invoking the status window. If no new message has arrived at the defined message interval, the info box  text will change to "No Message" and the clock in the Instant Values box stops showing the time of the last arrived message. If CL-VIEW is in the off-line mode, then a red status light appears as indication that the on-line mode is not in use.

The battery box shows whether the CL31, CL51 or CT25K unit is working from battery or not. If the unit uses the battery as a power source then a message "Working from Battery" appears to the battery box and a red status light is turned on.

Related Topics:

Status window

Message window

Sky Condition


Sky Condition

Sky condition is an optional feature in CL31, CL51 and CT25K and it can be viewed on the main screen if data message is 21 to 28 (CL31/CL51) or 7 (CT25K). Sky condition and cloud heights can also be viewed on a separate window. This can be done by choosing View/Sky Condition Window from the menu.

Cloud amounts can be displayed in three different modes: by numbers, text or symbols. When symbols are used cloud amounts are also displayed in numbers. Display mode can be changed by choosing View/Sky Condition Settings. Modes correspond each other by the following way:

Number	Text	Symbol	Meaning

0	 	Sky Clear

1 or 2 	FEW	Few

3 or 4	SCT	Scattered

5 or 6	BKN	Broken

7	BKN	Broken

8	OVC	Overcast

9	VV	Vertical Visibility

99	Na	Not Enough Data

-1	Miss	Data Missing

In main screen only three symbols are displayed indicating sky condition. Upper symbol indicates condition of the higher layer of the first two layers, middle symbol indicates condition of the higher layer of layers three and four, lower symbol indicates condition of layer five. Lowest symbol shown thus indicates the total cloud amount.


Status window

In the Status window, the contents of the status bits of the measurement message is presented. The Status window is updated when it is opened or when CL-VIEW reads a message either in the on-line mode from the ceilometer or in the off-line mode from a file. A complete Status message can be asked from the ceilometer by pressing the corresponding button. CL-VIEW then opens the ceilometer command state and asks for one status message. After that it closes the command state. The incoming status message is inserted to the Status message window. Full status message is not supported with CT12K.

Note

If a full status message is asked from the ceilometer when it tries to send a normal message, the normal message may be lost. This function is meant to be used during system setup and testing, NOT during data collection.


Message window

The received messages from the ceilometer can be viewed in the Message window.


Icon buttons

 Cloud detection graph selection button

 Cloud intensity graph selection button

 Backscatter graph selection button

 Cloud Graph and Backscatter selection button

 Status of the Ceilometer

 The measurement message

 Sky condition window

 Open the communication port and connect CL-VIEW to Ceilometer

 Close the communication port and disconnect CL-VIEW from Ceilometer

 Open Off-line file selection dialog box

 Logging On / Off

 Grid On / Off

Related Topics:

Off-line file viewing icon buttons


Off-line file viewing icon buttons

 File pointer to the beginning of the file

 Backward one message

 Forward one message

 Forward continuosly

 Stop file forwarding

 Close data file


Printing and Copying

The hard copies will be produced by using the Windows printer drivers. The printing functions are whole screen and graph screen printing. The whole screen printing prints the current graph and the information boxes. The graph screen printing prints the current graph box only.

The resolution of the print depends on the resolution of the screen and the size of the CL-VIEW window. The picture is automatically sized to use the whole paper width.

If the Automatic Graph Printing is selected, a Cloud graph is printed each time the pointer in the Cloud graphics reaches the right border of the graph window. After printing, the pointer and the graphics scroll to the left border of the graph window. In the off-line mode, printing occurs also when the end of the file is reached. With this function whole off-line files can be printed easily.

It is also possible to copy the graph to the clipboard. The Copy Graph menu selection will copy the graph screen to the clipboard.

The whole CL-VIEW screen can be copied by pressing the Alt and Print Screen keys of the keyboard. This command copies the contents of the active window to the clipboard. The whole screen of the PC can be copied by pressing Print Screen key.


Ceilometer type selection

The CL-VIEW program can be modified to the following Vaisala Ceilometer types: CL51, CL31, CT75K, CT25K, CT12K and LD40. CL31, CT75K and CT25K are fully supported.

The CT12K is partly supported. The functions that can be derived from message 3 and 6 are available. The profile is drawn by converting the presence of backscatter bits to backscatter value 1000*(10000srad*km)^-1. The Cloud graph is drawn by using this threshold value. The Cloud detection graph is drawn normally by using the indicated cloud height values. Note that the vertical resolution on the graphics is 100 ft/30m and sky condition viewing is possible with message mode 6

The Ceilometer type selection is made with File/Ceilo Type selection window. The selection affects the label texts on the screen and the maximum altitude range setting.


Multiple configuration files

CL-VIEW uses different ini file for every instance of the program. When a new CL-VIEW starts it recognizes how many instances are running and choose a corresponding ini file. Ini files are located in operating system directory and naming convention is CLVIEW#.INI where # is a number of instance. For example if two CL-VIEWs are already running and user starts another it will use ini file CLVIEW3.INI. If ini file does not exists new file is created. User can check which ini file CL-VIEW is using by viewing About box from the Help/About menu. On the bottom of the box is text Instance: A/B CL-VIEW#.INI where A is number of current instance and B number of total running instances. For example if A is 2 then program is using ini file CLVIEW2.INI.

CL-VIEW can also be forced to use certain ini file by giving it command line argument. For example calling CL-VIEW from command line with

C:\CL-VIEW\CL-VIEW.exe 3

will force CL-VIEW to use ini file CL-VIEW3.INI.


Communication

There are two communication alternatives between the ceilometer and the PC. At short distances (a few hundred meters, depending on the cable type used), a direct RS-232C serial line is applicable. At longer connection distances, modems shall be used.

You shall choose which communication method will be used. The default value for the program is direct RS232C COM1 2400E71.

The on-line mode can be entered by opening the communication port. The communication port can be opened from File menu with the Open Port selection or by pressing the Open Communication Port icon button [image], after which CL-VIEW starts waiting for the messages sent from the ceilometer. The on-line mode can be closed by closing the communication port from the File menu or by pressing the Close Communication Port icon button [image].

If the communication port and the data logging file is wanted to be opened automatically when CL-VIEW is started that selection can be done with Start Up Options screen from File menu.

Related Topics:

RS232C

Modem


RS232C

The default communication parameters in the PC are the following: serial communication port = 1, baud rate = 19200, data bits = 8, parity = None, stop bits = 1. These values are the default values also in the Ceilometers CL31 and CL51.

For CT type ceilometers the default values are: serial communication port = 1, baud rate = 2400, data bits = 7, parity = Even, stop bits = 1. The baud values can be changed but note that data frame values data bits = 7, parity = Even, stop bits = 1 are fixed in the CT type Ceilometers.

The settings are to be made before the communication port is opened. The possible error message during port opening is ERROR, DEVICE IN USE. This means that the selected communication port of the PC is already opened by another program or a serial connected mouse is connected to that port. To resume from the error state, the other program must be closed or the communication port selection in the Communication Settings menu must be changed.


Modem

At the PC end of the communication channel, a fixed line modem is intended to be used. You shall write the correct initialization string for the modem type used in the Communication Setup screen. Refer to the manual of the modem to set a fixed line communication mode.

When the communication port is opened CL-VIEW checks if a Carrier signal is detected by the modem. If not, CL-VIEW sends an initialization string to the modem and the connection is automatically established. If the Carrier signal is lost during data collection, CL-VIEW tries to make new connection automatically .

An example of the initialization string: AT&L1M0&D0D

The commands in the example string are as follows:

AT	Appears at the beginning of every command line

&L1	Modem is set up for leased-line operation

M0	Internal speaker off (the speaker can also be on)

&D0	Modem ignores the Data Terminal Ready signal

D	Dial call in originate mode

Refer to the modem manual to set the modem to the corresponding mode. The &D0 modem ignores the Data Terminal Ready signal. A command is given to prevent the modem from dropping the connection. With this configuration, the modem will stay on-line when the communication port control is temporary switched off


Terminal

CL-VIEW has internal Terminal program which can be launched from Terminal/Open menu. It is used for changing ceilometer parameters. Terminal uses same port settings and port state than normal CL-VIEW operation. If port settings are changed from Terminal they are also changed in a normal operation.

Terminal sessions can be logged by selecting File/Open Log File from the menu, after program asks name for the log file. If the file already exists new session can be appended to the old or it can be overwritten. Logging can be terminated by selecting File/Close Log File. Text can be copied from the terminal window by selecting text and then pressing the right mouse button.

Note:

Messages from the ceilometer are blocked from the normal operation while in Terminal mode so graphs and instant values are not  updated or logged during Terminal session.


Data logging

The program can be set to automatically store the received messages from the ceilometer to the specified directory on the hard disk. The data is stored in the same format as it comes from the ceilometer. The present date and time of the PC's clock is added to the beginning of the message. The format of the date and time information is year-month-day hour:minutes:seconds (for example 2005-04-28 16:59:29).

During system setup and testing it may be useful to log also status messages from ceilometer. This can be done by checking Enable Status Message Logging from Log/Settings dialog. Status messages are asked from the ceilometer every time the alarm or warning bits of the status information field of the measurement message change and are stored to the disk in the same directory as logging files with same name except name extension is .sta. Status messages are also shown in the Status Message window, which will be activated when status message is being asked.

Related Topics:

Filing procedure

Zip archiving of logging files


Filing procedure

As a default, a new file is opened by the program in the beginning of each sixth hour. The filing procedure is as follows: After a file is opened and the first message is written to it, the program closes the file. As the next message comes, the program opens the file for appending and writes the message to the file. Then the file is closed again. This method allows further data processing during data collection. If you want to study the current logging file, it must be saved with a new name or copied to another directory.

Note

Do not open the current logging file during logging with another CL-VIEW session or some other program. If you do so, the logging will be prevented.

The default working directory is C:\Program Files\CL-VIEW (the directory specified when running the CL-VIEW SETUP program). This can be changed in the Logging Settings dialog box which also informs on free disk space of the selected hard disk The first character of the logging file can also be changed by changing the value of the File Char in the Logging Settings dialog.

The software checks free hard disk space and gives an alarm in the Info box when there is approximately 24 hours of capacity left. If Log file length is set to even number, new log files will also be opened at even hours. For example if Log file length is 6 hours and logging starts at 09:10 then then first logging file opens at 09:10 and next at 12:00, 18:00, 24:00 and so on.

Related Topics:

Zip archiving of logging files


Zip Archiving of Logging Files

Logging files can be compressed during logging using external zip application. Archiving can be enabled from the Log/Settings dialog by checking Enable Log File Zipping. Compression takes place between log file changing or after toggling Log off by calling external zip application whose location is set in a Log/Settings dialog. Compression is intented to be done with common Dos-based zip application PKZIP.EXE or Windows-based WinZip and it is not guaranteed to work with any other compression application. Logging files are removed after compression if Remove Log File After Zipping is checked. Note: Zip application is not included with CL-VIEW.


File Open

The off-line file open selection opens the standard File Open dialog box of Windows. The used extension filter is .DAT and the file name formats are *ymmddhh.dat. The letters ymmddhh describe the creation date and time of the file and * is any valid File Char which can be set in a Log/Settings dialog. The meanings of the other letters are the following:

y = the last number of year, mm = month, dd = day, hh = hour

User can select multiple files by pressing SHIFT or CTRL during selection.


Viewing Files

When file is selected in the  OFF-LINE FILE OPEN dialog box there will appear new icon buttons to the toolbar of the CL-VIEW. With these buttons user can play file forward and backward. After file is opened the forward continuosly button is pressed down and file presentation starts automatically. If multiple files are selected from the Open dialog box CL-VIEW sorts them in a alphabetical order (in time order if used File Char is the same) and shows them sequentially. This way user can easily view long time periods from separate short files.


Excel conversion

In the off-line mode, the stored backscatter profiles can be converted to the Excel spreadsheet program suitable format. That can be done by selecting the Excel data conversion option in the File menu. When this option is selected, CL-VIEW produces a new file to the same directory where the stored data file is. The name of the new file is the same as the data file name but its extension is 'txt'. For example:

Stored data file: C5012300.DAT

Excel converted file: C5012300.TXT

The altitude range of the data is similar to the current altitude range in the Backscatter graph window. It is highly recommended to select a partial altitude range only for the Excel conversion, because then it is easier to handle the data file in Excel. Also, the Excel program has limitations concerning the number of columns in one row. As many messages as played forward at the selection of the Excel conversion option are written to the Excel file.

The converted data profile can be loaded to Excel by reading it as a text-file and by selecting the comma to be a column separator.