DISCOVER-AQ: GCAS Aircraft Remote Sensing Data for Colorado Air Quality

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign deployed the B-200 aircraft with the GCAS instrument to collect remotely sensed atmospheric column data over Denver, Colorado in 2014. This data product is part of a four-year field study involving NASA Langley, Goddard, and Ames Research Centers to improve satellite monitoring of surface-level pollution. The campaign targeted regions, including Denver, that were in violation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde based on surface and aircraft measurements described in the campaign.
• Investigate correlations between surface-level pollution and atmospheric column data to diagnose ground-level air quality conditions.
• Study diurnal variability and horizontal scales of pollution, such as urban plumes, using the targeted airborne observations.
• Support air quality model development and evaluation by providing vertically resolved remote sensing data from a specific deployment.

Strengths

• Data collection is explicitly stated as complete for the Colorado deployment.
• Produced by NASA, a leading authority in atmospheric and space science.
• Part of a targeted multi-year campaign involving multiple NASA centers and universities.
• Designed to address a specific public health and environmental objective: improving satellite-based air quality monitoring.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is limited to a single geographic deployment (Colorado) and time period (2014).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remotely sensed data collected by the GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Airborne Simulator (GCAS) onboard NASA's B-200 aircraft.

Time Range

2014 (Colorado deployment)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:14:31.179359; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Denver, Colorado, USA