Abstract:In order to further evaluate the performance of the infrared thermometers of groundbased microwave radiometers to observe clouds, the cloud based height data measured by a MWP967KV infrared thermometer equipped in a groundbased microwave radiometer and a K/LLX502Btyped laser cloud detector, which were set up in the Guangzhou Field Experiment Site for Lightning Research and Tests from May to July of 2017 and 2018, are collected. At the same time, the manual observations of weather conditions and cloud types are used for classification. The performance of the infrared thermometer for cloud identification and cloud based height measurement is analyzed under different weather conditions and cloud types. The results show that the infrared thermometer in the groundbased microwave radiometer has good cloud recognition capability, and the accuracy rate is 80.4%. The failure to identify cloud mainly occurs in the cloudy situation due to the observation angle. The correlation coefficient of the cloud based height measured by the two instruments is 0.63, which means good consistency. The cloud based heights measured by the infrared thermometer are always higher than those of the laser cloud detector, and the consistency of cloud based heights measured by the two instruments at low clouds and overcast conditions is better than those measured at middle, high clouds and clouds conditions, because the observation principles are different. It is feasible for the infrared thermometers in the microwave radiometers to identify the clouds and measure cloud based heights, especially under low cloudy and overcast conditions.