Chilbolton Observatory is based in the village of Chilbolton near Andover in Hampshire, and was first opened in 1967 as a radio and space research station. It is currently operated by the Radio Communications Research Unit of CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The main facility is the 25m fully steerable antenna which hosts the S-Band, CAMRa 3 GHz Doppler Polarisation Radar, and the L-Band Acrobat Radar. Alongside this are the 35GHz and 94GHz radars which can either be vertically pointing on the ground or mounted on an arm on the side of the 25 metre dish. These systems are complemented by a 905nm Vaisala CT75K lidar, a 355mm UV Raman Lidar and multiple raingauge and meteorological sensors which are located on the range. A cloud camera is also pointed vertical to record cloud images.

All data gathered from Chilbolton is quality checked and placed on the British Atmospheric Data Centre in netcdf or ascii format for users to analyse.

For more detailed information  on Chilbolton Observatory and to see our weather web page with current weather information click on the links below:

Chilbolton Observatory                            Weather Web

These pages are maintained by Carron Wilson, any queries E-mail: C.L.Wilson@rl.ac.uk