DISCOVER-AQ: Ground Site Air Quality Measurements from Huron, California

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected ground-level data at the Huron site in California's San Joaquin Valley to validate satellite observations of near-surface pollution. The four-year study employed aircraft, surface monitors, and photometers to correlate column and surface measurements for ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. Data collection is complete for this California deployment.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone (O3) based on concurrent ground-level measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations using surface-level data.
• Model horizontal scales of pollution variability, such as urban plumes, using ground site data.
• Correlate formaldehyde (CH2O) satellite readings with surface conditions to improve diagnostic algorithms.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the California deployment, providing a finalized dataset.
• Part of a four-year NASA campaign involving multiple research centers and universities.
• Integrates measurements from aircraft spirals, surface monitors, and remote sensing instruments.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is specific to the 2013 California deployment; other regions are separate datasets.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected at the Huron ground site during the California deployment of the DISCOVER-AQ field study, using surface monitoring sites, AERONET sun photometers, Pandora spectrometers, and model simulations.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:15:16.808988; freshness should be verified.

Geography

San Joaquin Valley, California, USA