DISCOVER-AQ Texas: Aircraft Lidar Data for Air Quality Validation

The 2013 Texas deployment data from NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign contains remotely sensed atmospheric measurements collected by the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) onboard a UC-12 aircraft. The campaign was a four-year effort by NASA and university partners to improve satellite monitoring of air quality. It focused on regions violating air quality standards, including Houston, Texas.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite column observations of pollutants based on surface-level aircraft measurements.
• Analyze diurnal variability of atmospheric aerosols based on vertically resolved lidar data.
• Study horizontal scales of pollution variability, such as urban plumes, using targeted airborne observations.
• Correlate aerosol backscatter and extinction measurements with ground-based air quality monitor data.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the Texas deployment, providing a finalized dataset.
• Campaign involved multiple NASA centers and universities, suggesting a coordinated, high-quality collection effort.
• Data is part of a targeted study in regions violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

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 and ISO, which may require specialized tools for access.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remotely sensed data collected by the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) onboard NASA's UC-12 aircraft.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 03:20:44.954038; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Houston, Texas, USA