AJAX: California Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Profiles from Aircraft

Over a decade of routine in-situ atmospheric measurements from NASA's Alpha Jet aircraft over California, Nevada, and the coastal Pacific. The project, a partnership with H211, L.L.C., includes calibrated ozone, formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, and methane data, plus 3-D winds, supporting satellite validation. AJAX celebrated its 200th science flight in 2016 and has studied phenomena from forest fires to pollution transport.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-derived carbon dioxide and methane measurements based on in-situ vertical profiles.
• Analyze seasonal and long-term trends in atmospheric trace gases over the western US.
• Model pollution transport and source attribution based on data from events like forest fires and urban outflow.
• Assess the impact of specific emission sources like oil fields or dairies on local air chemistry.

Strengths

• Data collected for over a decade across all seasons, providing long-term temporal coverage.
• Includes rigorously-calibrated measurements of multiple trace gases (O3, HCHO, CO2, CH4) and 3-D winds.
• Supports major satellite missions like NASA's OCO-2/3 and Japan's GOSAT, indicating validation utility.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ measurements from the Alpha Jet aircraft during routine flights.

Time Range

Over a decade (project active by 2016, with 200th flight that year).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 06:01:47.427742; freshness should be verified.

Geography

California, Nevada, and the coastal Pacific.