ATTREX: In-Situ Trace Gas Measurements from Global Hawk UAS

Data from the 2011, 2013, and 2014 deployments of the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX) campaign, collected over California and Guam. This dataset contains in-situ measurements of trace gases, water vapor, ozone, and reactive halogen compounds from multiple instruments onboard the Global Hawk Uninhabited Aerial System. It was created to address uncertainties in physical and chemical processes within the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) that affect stratospheric humidity and ozone predictions.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the transport of reactive halogen-containing compounds through the Tropical Tropopause Layer.
• Validating and improving global climate model representations of stratospheric water vapor and ozone.
• Studying the relationship between cirrus cloud particle properties and trace gas concentrations in the upper troposphere.
• Investigating the three-dimensional distribution of key chemical species and winds in the tropical tropopause region.

Strengths

• Data collection is explicitly stated as complete.
• Measurements were taken by multiple, specialized instruments (e.g., DLH, UCATS, AWAS, Picarro spectrometer).
• Covers three distinct deployment campaigns across two geographic regions.

Limitations

• Column names and the exact number of data rows are not provided in the available metadata.
• Conflicting 'last updated' timestamps exist between sources (2013 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected onboard the Global Hawk Uninhabited Aerial System (UAS) during the ATTREX campaign.

Time Range

2011, 2013, 2014

Freshness

Last updated date conflicts: one source lists 2013-03-01, another lists 2026-03-13.

Geography

California, USA, and Guam