Airborne Lidar CO2 Measurements Over Eastern USA

Central and eastern U.S. airborne campaigns collected column-average carbon dioxide concentrations using a Multi-functional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft. The dataset covers four seasonal campaigns from Summer 2016 to Spring 2018, with measurements recorded at a 0.1-second frequency up to 8 km altitude. This Level 2 'Lite' subset is provided by the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT-America) project.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal variations in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the central and eastern U.S. using the column-average CO2 measurements.
• Validating satellite-based carbon observation models with precise, airborne lidar-derived data points.
• Studying the relationship between aircraft altitude, location (latitude/longitude), and measured CO2 levels for boundary layer research.
• Investigating surface reflectance and cloud top interactions with CO2 column density measurements from the MFLL instrument.

Strengths

• Data was collected at a high temporal resolution of 0.1 seconds during flights.
• Covers four distinct seasonal campaigns (Summer 2016, Winter 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018) providing intra-annual variation.
• Includes complete aircraft flight information such as latitude, longitude, altitude, and attitude interpolated to the measurement frequency.
• Measurements were taken up to 8 km altitude, capturing vertical profiles of CO2.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the last updated date (2018-05-20 vs. 2026-03 13), indicating potential metadata inconsistency.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and the complete column schema are not provided by any platform.
• The dataset explicitly excludes data from the Summer 2019 ACT-America campaign.

Provenance

Source

Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT-America) project, with data likely from ORNL_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Remotely sensed column-average CO2 concentrations measured by a Multi-functional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL) onboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Time Range

Summer 2016 to Spring 2018

Freshness

2026-03-13 06:56:20.933099

Geography

Central and eastern regions of the United States