ATom Mission Airborne Halocarbon and Hydrocarbon Measurements

More than 50 trace gases, including C2-C10 non-methane hydrocarbons, C1-C2 halocarbons, C1-C5 alkyl nitrates, and sulfur compounds, were measured during NASA's ATom mission. The UC-Irvine Whole Air Sampler collected samples aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft, which performed global atmospheric profiling from 0.2 to 12 km altitude across four seasons. Data collection spanned from 2016 to 2018, with the dataset managed by ORNL_CLOUD.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal and spatial variability of non-methane hydrocarbon concentrations to understand photochemical ozone production.
• Studying the atmospheric distribution of halocarbons to evaluate their roles as ozone-depleting substances or greenhouse gases.
• Using alkyl nitrate measurements as tracers for atmospheric oxidation processes and nitrogen cycling.
• Investigating correlations between different trace gas species across diverse atmospheric regimes from the remote ocean to polluted regions.
• Validating and improving chemical transport models with globally representative, vertically resolved in-situ measurements.

Strengths

• Measures over 50 specific trace gas species, providing a detailed chemical snapshot.
• Covers a wide vertical range (0.2 to 12 km) and global geography across four seasons from 2016 to 2018.
• Uses an established laboratory analysis method (GC with FID and MSD) following standardized airborne sampling.

Limitations

• Specific column names and the total number of data rows are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last update date, reporting either 2018-05-21 or 2026-03 13.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission, UC-Irvine Whole Air Sampler.

Collection Method

Airborne whole air sampling from the NASA DC-8 aircraft, followed by laboratory analysis using gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass spectrometric detection.

Time Range

2016 to 2018

Freshness

2026 -03-13 14:02:30.189914

Geography

Global-scale atmospheric sampling.