NASA ATom Mission Light-Absorbing Metallic Aerosol Measurements 2016-2018

Global airborne measurements provide mass mixing ratios and number density for light-absorbing metallic aerosols (LAM) in the 180-1290 nm size range. Data originates from the NOAA Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) during four NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission deployments. The dataset includes quantification of refractory aerosol mass, number density, and the percent of LAM mass attributed to anthropogenic iron oxides (FeOx).

Use Cases

• Analyzing the global distribution and concentration of light-absorbing aerosols like black carbon (BC) using mass mixing ratio and number density columns.
• Quantifying the anthropogenic contribution to atmospheric iron oxides via the provided percent of LAM aerosols attributed to FeOx by mass.
• Studying aerosol size distributions and properties within the 180-1290 nm range for climate modeling.
• Investigating temporal and spatial variations in refractory aerosol loads across the four ATom mission deployments from 2016-2018.

Strengths

• Provides in-situ, real-time particle-level measurements from a specialized NOAA SP2 instrument.
• Covers a multi-year time range across four distinct airborne mission deployments from 2016 to 2018.
• Includes derived metrics such as the anthropogenic FeOx percentage, adding interpretive value.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source platform.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist: one source lists 2018-05-21, while others list 2026-03 13.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) instrument deployed on NASA ATom airborne missions.

Collection Method

Laser-induced incandescence for real-time in situ quantification.

Time Range

2016-2018

Freshness

2026-03-13 08:26:48.755381

Geography

Global, from NASA ATom mission flight paths.