DISCOVER-AQ Colorado: Aircraft Merged Air Pollution Data

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign was a four-year field study to improve satellite monitoring of air quality. This dataset contains merged measurements from the P-3B aircraft during the Colorado deployment in 2014, focusing on near-surface pollution factors. Data collection is complete and includes in-situ spiral profiling of aerosols, meteorological variables, and trace gases.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde based on surface-level aircraft measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of air pollutants based on the campaign's objective to understand controlling factors.
• Study horizontal scales of variability, such as urban plumes and steep gradients, based on the described research aims.
• Model near-surface pollution conditions using merged in-situ data on aerosol properties and trace gas species.

Strengths

• Data is from a targeted NASA field campaign employing two aircraft and multiple ground-based platforms.
• Focuses on regions in violation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, providing relevant real-world scenarios.
• Campaign spanned four years and multiple deployments, suggesting a structured and repeated measurement approach.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• File formats include BIN, PDF, ISO, HTML, which may require specialized tools for processing.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ spiral profiling and remote sensing from P-3B and King Air aircraft during the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign.

Time Range

Colorado deployment in 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:21:31.389534; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Denver, Colorado, USA.