CARVE Arctic Aircraft Flight Path and Position Data 2012-2015

Over 1-second intervals, this dataset records the C-23 Sherpa aircraft's geolocation, height, pitch, roll, and heading during Arctic airborne campaigns. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration collected this data from 2012 to 2015 to support the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment. These precise measurements are intended for matching aircraft position with other scientific instrument readings.

Use Cases

• Correlating aircraft position with atmospheric gas concentration readings from other CARVE instruments.
• Analyzing flight path geometry and aircraft attitude (pitch, roll, heading) for mission reconstruction.
• Studying seasonal and inter-annual variability by examining data collected from March to November across multiple years.
• Providing precise geolocation and temporal context for airborne data collected over Alaska and the Canadian Arctic.

Strengths

• Data is provided at a high 1-second temporal resolution for detailed flight path analysis.
• Covers multiple flight campaigns across a 4-year time range (2012-2015) enabling study of inter-annual variability.
• Collected in-situ using a dedicated onboard system (Digital Air Data System - DADS).
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData indicates recognized importance and curation.

Limitations

• Exact row count and file size are not specified across any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-13, while NASA EarthData lists 2015-11-13.
• The complete set of column names is not provided, limiting precise understanding of data structure.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected in situ using the Digital Air Data System (DADS) onboard the C-23 Sherpa aircraft.

Time Range

2012 to 2015

Freshness

2026-03 13 05:56:23.567444

Geography

Alaskan and Canadian Arctic