ARCTAS: Merged Atmospheric Measurements from DC-8 Aircraft Campaigns

NASA's ARCTAS campaign collected in-situ atmospheric data onboard a DC-8 aircraft during two deployments in 2008. The merge files combine measurements from various instruments to study pollution transport, boreal forest fires, and chemical processes in the Arctic. This dataset is part of a larger international effort for the 2007-2008 International Polar Year.

Use Cases

• Model long-range pollution transport to the Arctic based on in-situ atmospheric composition measurements.
• Study the impact of boreal forest fire emissions on Arctic radiation budgets and cloud processes.
• Analyze aerosol radiative forcing in a rapidly changing climate region.
• Investigate chemical processes involving ozone, aerosols, mercury, and halogens in the Arctic troposphere.

Strengths

• Data originates from a NASA-led international field campaign with defined scientific objectives.
• Campaign consisted of two three-week deployments in April and July 2008, capturing seasonal variations.
• Pre-generated merge files combine measurements from multiple in-situ instruments onboard the DC-8 aircraft.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• File formats include BIN, PDF, ISO, and HTML, which may require specialized tools for access and processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected from instrumentation onboard the DC-8 aircraft during the ARCTAS field campaign.

Time Range

2008 (specifically April and July deployments)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 14:23:57.687655; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Arctic region