ASCENDS: Airborne CO2 Measurements for LiDAR Validation

Airborne in situ measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide were collected over California and Nevada on February 10-11, 2016. The data were taken onboard a DC-8 aircraft using NASA's AVOCET instrument to validate the performance of an experimental CO2 Sounder LiDAR. The dataset includes aircraft navigation and flight meteorological data, provided in ICARTT and CSV formats.

Use Cases

• Validating LiDAR sensor performance based on comparison with in situ AVOCET measurements.
• Analyzing atmospheric CO2 concentrations over specific flight paths in California and Nevada.
• Correlating aircraft navigation and meteorological data with gas concentration readings.

Strengths

• Data collected by NASA's AVOCET instrument, a recognized standard for airborne CO2 measurement.
• Explicitly designed for sensor validation, providing a direct comparison between LiDAR and in situ methods.
• Available on multiple platforms, indicating established use and curation.

Limitations

• Column names and row counts are not provided in any source, limiting assessment of data structure and volume.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date (2016-02-12 vs. 2026-03-13), creating uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• License is specified only as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In situ airborne measurements collected onboard a DC-8 aircraft.

Time Range

February 10-11, 2016

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2016-02-12 (nasa_earthdata) and 2026-03-13 (datagov).

Geography

California and Nevada, USA