DISCOVER-AQ: Maryland Essex Ground Site Air Quality Measurements

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected ground-based air quality data at the Essex site during the Maryland deployment in 2011. The four-year campaign aimed to validate satellite observations of near-surface pollution by correlating surface measurements with atmospheric column data. Data includes measurements of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, aerosols, and meteorological variables.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-based air quality monitoring algorithms based on ground-level trace gas measurements.
• Analyze correlations between surface ozone concentrations and atmospheric column observations.
• Model diurnal variability of pollutants using surface-level measurement data.
• Study horizontal variability and urban plumes of aerosols and gases.
• Improve the diagnosis of ground-level conditions influencing air quality using aircraft and ground-based data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the Maryland deployment.
• Campaign employed two NASA aircraft and a network of surface monitoring sites.
• Focuses on three specific trace gases: ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde.

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 2011 Maryland deployment and four other regions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data collected via targeted airborne and ground-based observations during the DISCOVER-AQ field study.

Time Range

Campaign spanned four years, with Maryland deployment in 2011.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:21:31.351998; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region (Maryland deployment).