ACT-America Airborne Lidar CO2 Measurements Over Eastern USA

NASA's Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT-America) project provides Level 1 differential absorption optical depth (DAOD) measurements from the Multi-Functional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft. The dataset captures column CO2 number density at a 0.1-second frequency across four seasonal campaigns from Summer 2016 to Spring 2018 over central and eastern U.S. regions. Data includes interpolated aircraft flight information such as latitude, longitude, altitude, and attitude.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial and temporal patterns of atmospheric CO2 concentration using the DAOD and geospatial columns (latitude, longitude).
• Validating satellite-based carbon monitoring products against high-frequency airborne lidar measurements.
• Studying seasonal variability in carbon transport across central and eastern U.S. ecosystems.
• Correlating aircraft altitude and attitude data with column CO2 measurements to understand boundary layer dynamics.
• Developing calibration models for Level 2 data products using the raw Level 1 DAOD measurements.

Strengths

• Data collection spans four distinct seasonal campaigns (Summer 2016, Winter 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018), enabling analysis of temporal cycles.
• Measurements are taken at a high temporal frequency of 0.1 seconds during flights up to 8 km altitude.
• The dataset is part of the multi-platform ACT-America project, indicating peer-reviewed scientific curation.
• Includes complete, interpolated aircraft flight information (latitude, longitude, altitude, attitude) synchronized with the CO2 reporting frequency.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and a complete column list are unavailable across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one listing 2018-05-20 and others listing 2026-03 13.
• The dataset is explicitly noted as Level 1 (L1) raw data, with a recommended Level 2 (L2) product available for most applications.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD for NASA's Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT-America) project.

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing using the Multi-Functional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) on a C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Time Range

Summer 2016 to Spring 2018.

Freshness

2026-03-13 20:13:18.388434

Geography

Central and eastern regions of the United States.