ASIA-AQ DC-8 Aircraft In-Situ Aerosol and Analysis Data

January-March 2024 data from the Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ) campaign, collected onboard a DC-8 aircraft over the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand. This dataset includes in-situ aerosol measurements from instruments like the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2), alongside analysis flag files identifying pollution plumes and air mass layers. The international campaign, led by NASA's LARC_CLOUD organization, aimed to integrate satellite observations with ground monitoring to address regional air quality challenges.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived air quality products from instruments like GEMS using concurrent in-situ aerosol concentration and size distribution measurements.
• Identifying and analyzing biomass burning and combustion plumes across East and Southeast Asia using provided analysis flag files.
• Studying the chemical composition of aerosols, including black carbon, nitrate, and sulfate particles, via Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) data.
• Evaluating and improving regional air quality models with high-resolution, aircraft-based observations of aerosol extinction and particle properties.
• Characterizing vertical and horizontal distribution of different air mass layers and pollution sources during the winter-spring 2024 period.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific, recent international campaign (Jan-Mar 2024) with coordinated measurements over four Asian countries.
• Includes data from multiple advanced instruments (TEM, AMS, SP2, UHSAS, SMPS, Nephelometer) for detailed aerosol characterization.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates recognized importance and curation for the scientific community.
• Analysis flag files provide derived, science-ready identifiers for pollution plumes and air mass layers, adding interpretive value.

Limitations

• Key technical details like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all provided sources.
• One source lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, which is a future date and conflicts with the campaign's 2024 timeframe, suggesting a metadata error.
• The license is specified as 'other-license-specified' without providing the exact terms, requiring users to seek further clarification.

Provenance

Source

LARC_CLOUD (NASA)

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected onboard a DC-8 aircraft during the ASIA-AQ field campaign.

Time Range

January 2024 - March 2024

Freshness

2026-03-13 14:40:43.536351

Geography

The Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand