FIREX-AQ: Surface Mobile In-Situ Measurements of Wildfire Plumes

FIREX-AQ was a 2019 NOAA/NASA intensive study of North American fires. The campaign utilized a combination of instrumented airplanes, satellites, and ground-based instrumentation, including the Aerodyne mobile platform which collected these in-situ measurements of aerosol properties and trace gases. The overarching goal was to understand the impact of fire emissions on tropospheric chemistry, plume rise, and downwind air quality.

Use Cases

• Modeling chemical transformation of wildfire plumes downwind based on trace gas and aerosol measurements.
• Analyzing relationships between fire conditions and emission profiles based on detailed point-of-emission sampling.
• Validating satellite-derived fire data (e.g., temperature, plume heights) using coordinated ground and airborne in-situ measurements.
• Studying aerosol microphysical, optical, and chemical properties from prescribed and wild fires.

Strengths

• Data originates from a major, well-documented interagency campaign (NOAA/NASA FIREX-AQ).
• Campaign utilized multiple coordinated platforms (aircraft, satellites, mobile labs) for integrated analysis.
• The NASA DC-8 aircraft payload alone was capable of measuring over 200 trace gas species.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific modeling tasks.
• Data collection is complete for summer 2019 only, limiting temporal scope.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected via the Aerodyne mobile platform during the FIREX-AQ field campaign.

Time Range

Summer 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:57:55.604185; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America, with specific operations from Boise, Idaho and Salina, Kansas.