Arctic Airborne Lidar Data from NASA ARCSIX Campaign

High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) data was collected onboard the NASA LaRC G-III aircraft during the Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction EXperiment (ARCSIX). The campaign consisted of two deployments from May to June and July to August 2024, based out of Greenland, to study surface radiation and sea ice melt. This dataset is part of a NASA field investigation managed by LARC_CLOUD to validate remote sensing algorithms and model parameterizations in the Arctic.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived aerosol optical depth and extinction profiles using HALO lidar backscatter measurements.
• Analyzing vertical profiles of atmospheric composition, including methane and dust, ash, or smoke particles.
• Studying the relationship between cloud properties, aerosol loading, and the surface radiation budget during the Arctic melt season.
• Improving model parameterizations for Arctic cloud evolution and maintenance processes.

Strengths

• Data originates from a focused NASA field campaign (ARCSIX) with a clear scientific objective to quantify Arctic surface radiation contributions.
• Collection utilized specialized high-altitude aircraft instrumentation, including the HALO lidar and HSRL, for detailed remote sensing.
• Campaign completed two deployment phases covering a multi-month period in the 2024 Arctic summer.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, file sizes, and a complete set of column names are not provided by any source platform.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.
• One platform lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, which is future-dated relative to the 2024 campaign, suggesting a metadata conflict.

Provenance

Source

NASA LaRC G-III aircraft during the ARCSIX campaign, managed by LARC_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing using the High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) and other instruments.

Time Range

May – August 2024

Freshness

2026-03-13 16:49:22.331968

Geography

Arctic region, based out of Greenland with flights over surrounding areas.