The measuring principle and development process of self-developed fast-response visibility meter was introduced,and the comparative test with FD12 visibility meter was carried out.Meanwhile,by using the observational data from automatic weather station from October 2004 to March 2005,the evolution characteristics of visibility and its relationship with relative humidity,wind speed and temperature in autumn and winter in northern Beijing were discussed.The results showed that self-developed visibility meter could reflect the variation trend of visibility,with good comparison results,and could be used to measure visibility,while its frequency response was over 1 Hz,meeting the fast-response requirement of atmospheric visibility measurement and relevant detection.In northern Beijing,atmospheric visibility was significantly negatively correlated with relative humidity but significantly positively correlated with wind speed,while temperature could affect visibility indirectly by changing relative humidity and atmospheric stability.Gale and heavy fog had important effects on visibility.