ATom Mission Aerosol Spectrometer Calibration and Performance Data

Global airborne data from the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) provides calibration and in-flight performance metrics for two Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometers. The dataset includes detection efficiency, sizing calibration, and comparisons between instruments with and without a thermodenuder, collected onboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft in August 2016 and during laboratory studies in February 2017. It is produced by the ORNL_CLOUD organization.

Use Cases

• Calibrating aerosol spectrometer detection efficiency and sizing accuracy using laboratory-generated aerosols like ammonium sulfate.
• Analyzing the volatile fraction of atmospheric aerosols by comparing data from the thermodenuder-equipped UHSAS-1 and the standard UHSAS-2.
• Validating particle number concentrations by cross-comparing UHSAS-2 measurements with a condensation particle counter (CPC).
• Assessing instrument performance under varying environmental pressures and thermodenuder temperatures.
• Studying dry aerosol size distributions for both thermodenuded and non-thermodenuded particles.

Strengths

• Includes controlled laboratory calibration data using specific aerosol types: limonene ozonolysis, ammonium sulfate, and DOS.
• Provides in-flight performance data collected during a major NASA global airborne campaign (ATom) in August 2016.
• Enables direct comparison of volatile particle properties through paired instrument measurements (UHSAS-1 with thermodenuder vs. UHSAS-2 without).

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the 'last updated' date differs between sources (2017-05-31 vs. 2026-03-13).
• No column names, row counts, or specific file sizes are provided by any source platform.
• The license is ambiguously specified as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom), ORNL_CLOUD organization.

Collection Method

Data collected from laboratory studies and in-flight measurements onboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft using Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometers.

Time Range

August 2016 to February 2017

Freshness

2026-03-13 12:38:50.263404

Geography

Global, from the NASA ATom airborne campaign flight paths.