ARCTAS: High Spectral Resolution Lidar Data from Arctic Aircraft Campaign

ARCTAS_AircraftRemoteSensing_BE200_HSRL_Data contains High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements collected onboard the BE-200 aircraft during NASA's Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission. The data supports the study of long-range pollution transport, boreal forest fire impacts, and aerosol radiative forcing in the climatically sensitive Arctic region. It was part of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 POLARCAT experiment.

Use Cases

• Analyzing aerosol backscatter and extinction profiles to study Arctic haze and pollution transport.
• Investigating the radiative impact of smoke from boreal forest fires on the Arctic atmosphere.
• Validating satellite-derived aerosol and cloud property measurements over the Arctic.
• Studying the vertical distribution of aerosols and its connection to surface albedo changes.

Strengths

• Data originates from a major NASA-led international field campaign (ARCTAS/POLARCAT) with defined scientific objectives.
• Uses specialized High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) instrumentation for detailed aerosol profiling.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates established curation and importance.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in any source, limiting immediate usability.
• Conflicting metadata: one source lists a last update in 2026, while another lists 2008, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• No row counts, file sizes, or sample data are available to assess the dataset's scale.

Provenance

Source

NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC)

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing via High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) onboard a BE-200 aircraft.

Time Range

2007-2008

Freshness

2026-03-13 16:44:34.467551

Geography

Arctic region