ARCSIX: Aircraft In-Situ Aerosol and Meteorology Data

ARCSIX_Aerosol_AircraftInSitu_P3B_Data contains in-situ aerosol measurements from 12 instruments aboard a NASA P-3B aircraft during the 2024 Arctic summer. The campaign, based in Greenland, aimed to quantify contributions of surface properties, clouds, aerosols, and precipitation to the Arctic surface radiation budget and sea ice melt. A related dataset, ARCSIX_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_LaRC-G3_Data, provides meteorology and navigation data from the LaRC G-III aircraft during the same deployments.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite remote sensing algorithms for Arctic aerosols using detailed in-situ size distribution and composition data.
• Analyzing the impact of aerosol properties on cloud formation and the surface energy budget during the Arctic melt season.
• Calibrating atmospheric models with high-resolution, co-located meteorological and aerosol measurements from aircraft.
• Studying the spatial and temporal evolution of Arctic summer cloud types using coordinated multi-aircraft observations.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for a major NASA field campaign (ARCSIX).
• Includes measurements from 12 specialized aerosol instruments, suggesting detailed characterization.
• Covers two distinct deployment periods (May-June and July-August 2024) during the Arctic summer.

Limitations

• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are not specified in any source.
• Conflicting last-updated dates (2026-03-13 and 2024-08-18) exist for the aerosol dataset.
• Metadata completeness is medium; specific instrument variables and data formats are not detailed.

Provenance

Source

NASA ARCSIX field campaign, LARC_CLOUD organization.

Collection Method

Collected in-situ from instruments aboard NASA P-3B and LaRC G-III aircraft.

Time Range

May – August 2024

Freshness

2026-03-13

Geography

Arctic, based out of Greenland, including the Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO).