DISCOVER-AQ Colorado: Aircraft Lidar Data for Air Quality

The 2014 Colorado deployment of NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected remotely sensed data using the High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2) onboard a B-200 aircraft. The dataset was created by NASA Langley, Goddard, Ames Research Centers, and multiple universities to improve satellite monitoring of ground-level air quality. It focuses on the Denver region, which was targeted for violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of aerosols based on vertically resolved lidar measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of atmospheric pollutants based on targeted airborne observations.
• Study horizontal scales of variability, such as urban plumes, based on aircraft remote sensing over Denver.
• Diagnose ground-level conditions influencing air quality based on surface-level measurement integration.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the Colorado deployment, as stated in the description.
• Part of a four-year NASA campaign (DISCOVER-AQ) involving multiple research centers and universities.
• Targeted observations in regions violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

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 a single deployment (Colorado, 2014), limiting broader geographic analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remotely sensed data collected by the High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2) onboard NASA's B-200 aircraft.

Time Range

2014

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:15:04.080284; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Colorado (Denver)