ACT-America: Atmospheric Gas Concentrations from Aircraft Flasks, Eastern USA

Five years of airborne campaigns from 2016 to 2019 collected atmospheric gas mole fractions for the NASA ACT-America project. The data includes carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, molecular hydrogen, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, and other trace gases from discrete flask samples. Measurements were taken across all seasons and three regions of the central and eastern United States using two instrumented aircraft.

Use Cases

• Modeling regional greenhouse gas transport based on multi-season airborne measurements
• Analyzing seasonal variations in atmospheric trace gas concentrations across the eastern USA
• Validating satellite-derived atmospheric composition data based on high-quality in situ flask samples
• Studying correlations between different trace gases like CO2, CH4, and CO from concurrent flask captures

Strengths

• Data spans five six-week field campaigns covering all four seasons
• Approximately 10-12 discrete flask samples were captured during each of the 195 flights
• High-quality in situ measurements were collected across a variety of continental surfaces and atmospheric conditions

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

Laboratory measurements of whole air samples collected by Programmable Flask Packages onboard two aircraft

Time Range

Summer 2016, Winter 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Summer 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:36:32.804607; freshness should be verified

Geography

Central and eastern United States