DISCOVER-AQ: California Aircraft In Situ Aerosol Measurements

San Joaquin Valley aerosol data collected onboard NASA's P-3B aircraft during the 2013 DISCOVER-AQ California deployment. Instruments included PSAP, APS, CPC, CCN Counter, Nephelometer, LAS, PILS, Ion Chromatographs, SMPS, SP2, and UHSAS. The campaign was conducted by NASA Langley, Goddard, Ames, and universities to improve satellite monitoring of ground-level air quality.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of aerosols based on in-situ aircraft measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of aerosol properties based on surface-level and airborne data.
• Study correlations between surface pollution and atmospheric column measurements for ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde.
• Investigate horizontal scales of variability, such as urban plumes, using targeted airborne observations.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the California deployment.
• Utilizes multiple specialized instruments (PSAP, APS, CPC, CCN Counter, Nephelometer, LAS, PILS, Ion Chromatographs, SMPS, SP2, UHSAS) for comprehensive aerosol characterization.
• Part of a four-year NASA campaign (DISCOVER-AQ) involving multiple research centers and universities.

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

In situ data collected onboard NASA's P-3B aircraft during spiral profiling.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:21:58.726545; freshness should be verified.

Geography

San Joaquin Valley, California