NASA ATom-1 Black Carbon Mass Mixing Ratios from Global Flights

NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom)-1 dataset provides black carbon mass mixing ratios measured during a global flight campaign in July and August 2016. Measurements were taken at ten-second resolution using a Single Particle Soot Photometer, with supporting data from PALMS and CAPS instruments for aerosol composition and cloud identification. The dataset includes precise latitude, longitude, altitude, and timestamp for each observation.

Use Cases

• Mapping the global distribution of black carbon mass mixing ratios using the latitude, longitude, and altitude columns.
• Analyzing temporal trends in aerosol concentrations during the ATom-1 campaign using the timestamp data.
• Studying the influence of air mass composition on black carbon by leveraging PALMS instrument data.
• Identifying and filtering measurements taken within cloud systems using CAPS instrument data.
• Correlating flight path data with regional emission sources or atmospheric transport models.

Strengths

• Data is collected at a high temporal resolution of ten seconds.
• Measurements are derived from specialized instruments (SP2, PALMS, CAPS) for accurate aerosol characterization.
• Provides extensive spatial coverage from the Arctic to the South Pacific and across the Atlantic.

Limitations

• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2016-08-23 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-13 on Data.gov).
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Measured using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) during the ATom-1 flight campaign.

Time Range

July 2016 to August 2016

Freshness

2026-03 13 14:05:29.902164

Geography

Global coverage from California to the Arctic, South Pacific, Atlantic, Greenland, and central North America.