CarbonTracker-Lagrange: North American Greenhouse Gas Footprint Profiles

A 2026 dataset from NASA's CMS program provides Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) particle trajectory data products. It includes vertical footprint fields for 23 discrete levels at TCCON ground network sites, quantifying the influence of upwind surface fluxes on greenhouse gas concentrations. The data is designed to support policy and management activities related to carbon sources and sinks.

Use Cases

• Inferring regional carbon sources and sinks based on Lagrangian particle dispersion footprints.
• Validating and improving atmospheric transport models using co-located TCCON column observations.
• Quantifying the uncertainty of greenhouse gas flux estimates based on the adjoint transport model methodology.
• Supporting policy development for carbon management based on NASA observational and modeling capabilities.

Strengths

• Data produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program.
• Footprint fields are computed for 23 discrete vertical levels at each observation location.
• Last updated on 2026-03-13, indicating recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the TCCON ground network locations.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Generated using the WRF-STILT Lagrangian particle dispersion model applied backwards in time from measurement receptors.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-13 09:45:57.072960

Geography

North America, co-located with TCCON ground network sites.