FIREX-AQ: Cloud Physics Lidar Data from 2019 Aircraft Campaign

North American wildfire plumes were remotely sensed by the Cloud Physics Lidar onboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft during the summer 2019 FIREX-AQ campaign. The data collection is complete and was part of a NOAA/NASA interagency study to understand fire emissions' impact on tropospheric chemistry and air quality. The ER-2 payload included eight satellite analog instruments providing fire temperature, plume heights, and vegetation/soil albedo information.

Use Cases

• Analyze fire plume heights and structure based on lidar backscatter profiles.
• Study aerosol optical properties and microphysics in wildfire smoke based on remotely sensed data.
• Validate satellite fire detection and emission estimation algorithms based on aircraft-collected analog data.
• Model the downwind chemical transformation of plumes based on trace gas and aerosol emission measurements.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the summer 2019 campaign.
• Part of a coordinated effort involving multiple aircraft, ground stations, and mobile labs for integrated analysis.
• The ER-2 payload provided critical fire information including temperature and plume heights.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remotely sensed data collected by the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) onboard the ER-2 aircraft.

Time Range

Summer 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:49:09.450521; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America, with flights from Boise, Idaho and Salina, Kansas.