DISCOVER-AQ: Ground Site Air Quality Measurements for Satellite Validation

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected ground site data in Bakersfield during its California deployment in 2013. The four-year campaign employed aircraft and ground-based platforms to validate satellite observations of near-surface pollution. Data includes measurements of aerosol properties, meteorological variables, and trace gas species like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde based on surface-level measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of pollutants based on ground and aircraft observations.
• Model horizontal scales of variability, such as urban plumes, based on targeted airborne and ground-based data.
• Diagnose ground-level conditions influencing air quality based on in-situ spiral profiling and remote sensing data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the California deployment.
• Campaign employed two NASA aircraft (P-3B and King Air) and an existing network of surface monitors.
• Targeted four regions in violation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards from 2011 to 2014.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected at the Bakersfield ground site during the California deployment of the DISCOVER-AQ field study.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:14:55.654342; freshness should be verified

Geography

Bakersfield, California, San Joaquin Valley