Cloud Physics Lidar Data from FIREX-AQ Aircraft Campaign

Lidar data from 11 NASA ER-2 aircraft flights captured detailed vertical profiles of wildfire plumes during the 2019 FIREX-AQ campaign. The Cloud Physics Lidar instrument provided critical fire information, including plume heights and aerosol properties. This dataset was produced by the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC) from the completed 2019 field study.

Use Cases

• Analyze fire plume heights and vertical structure using CPL backscatter and depolarization ratio profiles.
• Study aerosol optical properties within wildfire smoke plumes for satellite algorithm validation.
• Investigate the relationship between fire conditions and lofted emissions using co-located ER-2 instrument data on fire temperature and albedo.
• Track the evolution and chemical transformation of plumes downwind by integrating with trace gas measurements from the DC-8 and Twin Otter aircraft.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the intensive 2019 FIREX-AQ field campaign.
• Provides vertically resolved remote sensing data critical for understanding plume rise, a key uncertainty in fire emissions.

Limitations

• Limited temporal scope to summer 2019 with no ongoing updates.
• Spatial coverage is restricted to flight paths over North American fires during the campaign.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and data formats are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center (LARC_ASDC).

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Summer 2019.

Freshness

Data is from a completed 2019 campaign; no update frequency is specified.

Geography

Flight paths over North America, including operations from Boise, Idaho and Salina, Kansas.