ACT-America: Atmospheric Boundary Layer Heights from Aircraft Lidar, Eastern US 2016-2018

Four ACT-America field campaigns (Summer 2016, Winter 2017, Fall 2017, and Spring 2018) collected aerosol backscatter profiles over the Eastern United States. NASA's C-130 aircraft carried the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), which measured profiles at 4-second temporal and 30-meter vertical resolutions. The derived atmospheric boundary layer top heights and altitudes of two additional aerosol layers are provided at an 8-second time resolution.

Use Cases

• Modeling atmospheric boundary layer evolution based on lidar-derived height data.
• Analyzing seasonal aerosol layer distribution based on campaign timing across four seasons.
• Validating satellite or ground-based remote sensing products based on high-resolution aircraft profiles.
• Studying regional air quality and pollution transport patterns based on Eastern US geographic coverage.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's C-130 aircraft campaigns, a credible source for atmospheric science.
• Profiles were collected at high resolution (4-second temporal, 30-meter vertical).
• Covers four distinct seasons across a multi-year period (2016-2018).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Derived from Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) measurements using the Haar wavelet transform method.

Time Range

2016-2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:36:41.942236; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Eastern United States