NMASS Aerosol Spectrometer Calibration and Flight Performance Data

NASA's Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) dataset contains calibration and in-flight performance data for two Nucleation Mode Aerosol Size Spectrometer (NMASS) instruments. Each NMASS uses five condensation particle counters to measure particle concentrations in size classes from 3 to 60 nanometers. The data includes inverted size distributions and comparisons with other spectrometers from a February 2017 flight aboard the DC-8 aircraft.

Use Cases

• Calibrating NMASS instrument response functions using provided counting efficiencies and calibration aerosol diameters.
• Analyzing in-flight particle size distributions inverted from five parallel condensation particle counter (CPC) concentrations.
• Comparing NMASS performance against Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS) measurements.
• Studying aerosol nucleation mode behavior under specific flight conditions of flow, temperature, and pressure.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific particle size range of 3 to 60 nanometers, relevant for nucleation mode studies.
• Includes direct comparisons between NMASS, SMPS, and UHSAS instruments for validation.
• Provides detailed calibration data including counting efficiencies and response functions for five CPCs per instrument.

Limitations

• Row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last update date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-13, while NASA Earthdata lists 2018-01-20.
• The dataset appears focused on a single flight event in February 2017, limiting temporal coverage.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom).

Collection Method

Data collected by two NMASS instruments with five condensation particle counters each, aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft, with numerical inversion applied to recover size distributions.

Time Range

February 2017 (specific flight).

Freshness

2026-03 13 (Data.gov), but conflicting with 2018-01-20 (NASA Earthdata).

Geography

Airborne measurements from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during an ATom mission flight.