An automatic, active, remote-sensing instrument for detecting the presence of clouds overhead and measuring the height of their bases. For optically thin clouds, such as most cirrus, more than one layer may be detected, but when optically thick clouds, such as liquid water stratus, are present, the light beam is unlikely to penetrate much beyond the base of the lowest liquid layer. Laser ceilometers use intense pulses of light in a very narrowly collimated, vertically directed beam, and have collocated transmitter and receiver systems. The cloud base heights may be displayed in a variety of time-height section images or backscatter intensity profile plots. Some older ceilometers use separated transmitter and receiver units. The instruments are designed to work during the day or night.