DISCOVER-AQ Maryland Fairhill Ground Site Air Quality Measurements

NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign collected atmospheric data at the Fairhill ground site during the Maryland deployment in 2011. The data likely contains measurements of aerosol properties, meteorological variables, and trace gas species like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. This dataset was produced by NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center, and multiple universities.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde based on surface-level measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of atmospheric pollutants based on ground-based monitoring.
• Investigate correlations between surface pollution and satellite data to improve air quality diagnosis.
• Model horizontal scales of variability, such as urban plumes, based on targeted ground and aircraft observations.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the Maryland deployment.
• Campaign employed two NASA aircraft and a network of surface monitors, AERONET sun photometers, and Pandora spectrometers.
• The DISCOVER-AQ campaign was a four-year study conducted in multiple regions violating 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.
• File formats include BIN, PDF, ISO, HTML; data accessibility may require specialized tools.

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

Maryland deployment occurred in 2011.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:21:10.965175; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region, specifically the Fairhill ground site.