ACTIVATE: King Air Aircraft Meteorological and Navigational Data Over Western Atlantic

ACTIVATE was a 5-year NASA Earth-Venture field campaign studying marine boundary layer clouds, which cover more than 45% of the ocean surface. The project collected data over the western North Atlantic through 150 coordinated flights from 2020 to 2022 using two aircraft. This dataset contains the meteorological and navigational data from the B-200 King Air aircraft's in-situ instrumentation.

Use Cases

• Modeling aerosol-cloud interactions based on the described sampling of marine boundary layer cloud systems.
• Analyzing meteorological conditions over the western North Atlantic based on the described in-situ aircraft measurements.
• Studying the net cooling effect of marine clouds based on the described role in Earth's energy balance.
• Classifying air masses based on the described trace gas measurements for pollution analysis.

Strengths

• Data originates from a structured 5-year NASA Earth-Venture Sub-Orbital (EVS-3) field campaign.
• Collection involved 150 coordinated flights over six deployments, suggesting a substantial observational effort.
• Focused on the shallow cumulus cloud regime with two defined flight patterns (Statistical Survey and Process Study) for targeted sampling.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical needs.
• File formats include BIN and ISO, which may require specialized tools or knowledge for processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected onboard the B 200 King Air aircraft via in-situ instrumentation during coordinated flight patterns.

Time Range

2020-2022 (flight deployments), project duration January 2019-December 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:49:24.216686; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Western North Atlantic Ocean.