Visibility statistics in Swedish littoral environment

Authors:

  • Mattias Rahm

Publish date: 2025-03-26

Report number: FOI-R--5694--SE

Pages: 22

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • Optics
  • Visibility
  • Lidar
  • Maritime
  • Coast
  • Aerosol
  • Precipitation

Abstract

Visibility is a measure of aerosol and hydrometeor concentration in the atmosphere. Statistics of visibility is therefore important information when understanding atmosphere induced degrading effects on electro-optical systems. It is measured on several sites along the Swedish coastline, and measurements have been performed during a long time. There is thus a good database of information to perform a statistical analysis on visibility and its variations on the Swedish coast. This report concerns an analysis of visibility using all visibility meters along the coastline included in the SMHIs measurement network. Based on median visibility it was possible to group the measurement sites based on geographical location: the West coast and southern Baltic Sea, the north and middle Baltic Sea, and the Gulf of Bothnia. Data shows that visibility is lower on the West coast and the southern Baltic Sea than in the other regions. In all regions, there is lower visibility during fall and winter than during spring and summer. Diurnal variation is present during spring and summer, with lower occurrence of good visibility and higher occurrence of reduced visibility during night than during day. Significantly reduced visibility, induced by either fog or falling snow, occurs in 1-3 % of the time along the entre coast, with only minor variation due to geography and season. The analysis shows when the Swedish armed forces can expect both good and degraded visibility along the Swedish coastline. The results can also be input to statistical performance models of electro-optical systems of interest for the armed forces.