<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-4448</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Atmospheric Boundary Layer Height from Commercial Ceilometers: Optimization and Validation of the MIPA Algorithm</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mazza</surname>
<given-names>Antonio</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7961-1669</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>De Rosa</surname>
<given-names>Benedetto</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gandolfi</surname>
<given-names>Ilaria</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lapenna</surname>
<given-names>Emilio</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lolli</surname>
<given-names>Simone</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6111-152X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Marra</surname>
<given-names>Fabrizio</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1722-2200</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mona</surname>
<given-names>Lucia</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4157-0838</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ripepi</surname>
<given-names>Ermann</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6304-4655</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rosoldi</surname>
<given-names>Marco</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Vivone</surname>
<given-names>Gemine</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>D'Amico</surname>
<given-names>Giuseppe</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6627-2517</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Integrated Methodologies for Earth Observation (CNR-IMIOT), Tito (PZ), Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>National Biodiversity Future Center, NBFC, Palermo, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>02</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>24</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Antonio Mazza et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4448/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4448/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4448/egusphere-2026-4448.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4448/egusphere-2026-4448.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>This study investigates the applicability of the Morphological Image Processing Approach (MIPA) for estimating the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Height (ABLH) from ceilometer observations. Based on our previous work, in which MIPA was assessed and validated using High Power LiDAR observations, the present study extends its application for the first time to three commercial ceilometers (CHM15k, CL31, and CL51). The analysis is based on a measurement campaign conducted at the CIAO (CNR-IMIOT Atmospheric Observatory) during spring 2024. Three case studies covering different atmospheric conditions were selected to quantify the retrieval performance. A grid search was performed to optimize MIPA for each ceilometer, while the retrieved ABLH values were evaluated against a reference dataset obtained from temporally frequent radiosonde launches. The retrievals were also compared with the proprietary algorithms implemented by the instrument manufacturers. Results demonstrate that MIPA provides robust ABLH estimates for the considered ceilometers and generally outperforms the corresponding operational retrievals. The optimization showed that only a limited subset of processing parameters required instrument-specific tuning, confirming the robustness of the proposed methodology. Among the investigated instruments, the CHM15k achieved the best overall performance, yielding the lowest RMSE and standard error with respect to radiosonde-derived ABLH. These results highlight the influence of sensor characteristics, such as signal-to-noise ratio and near-range measurement quality, on retrieval accuracy. Widespread availability, low cost, and continuous operation, together with MIPA&apos;s low computational cost, make ceilometers an attractive complement to advanced LiDAR systems, enabling denser and more continuous near-real-time ABLH monitoring networks at regional and potentially continental scales.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="24"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>NextGenerationEU</funding-source>
<award-id>Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 3.1 - CUP B53C22002150006 - Project IR0000032 - ITINERIS</award-id>
<award-id>Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4-Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021. Project code CN_00000033</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Ministero dell&apos;Università e della Ricerca</funding-source>
<award-id>PON “Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020” under the project PER-ACTRIS-IT (Potenziamento della componente italiana della Infrastruttura di Ricerca Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) PIR01\_00015, CUP B17E19000000007-PON “Ricerca e Innova</award-id>
<award-id>Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022. CUP B83C22002930006, Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center-NBFC”</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>