DISCOVER-AQ: California Ground Site Air Quality Measurements

A 2013 field study in California's San Joaquin Valley collected ground-based air quality data to validate satellite observations. The campaign was conducted by NASA Langley, Goddard, and Ames Research Centers with multiple universities. Data collection is complete for this deployment.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-based air quality models based on ground-level measurements.
• Analyze factors influencing near-surface pollution based on in-situ atmospheric profiling.
• Improve the use of satellites for public health monitoring based on targeted airborne and ground-based observations.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the California deployment.
• Campaign employed two NASA aircraft (P-3B and King Air) and many surface monitoring sites.
• Incorporates data from an existing network of surface air quality monitors, AERONET sun photometers, and Pandora UV/vis spectrometers.

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

Data collected at the Oildale ground site during the California deployment of NASA's DISCOVER-AQ field study.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:22:29.149358; freshness should be verified.

Geography

San Joaquin Valley, California, USA