FIRE ASTEX/MAGE Tetroon: 1992 Atlantic Marine Cloud and Aerosol Balloon Tracking Data

Special constant-density balloons were tracked for 48-hour periods during June 1992 to follow a single parcel of air over the eastern North Atlantic. This data was collected as part of the multinational ASTEX/MAGE experiment to study cloud-chemistry interactions and air/sea fluxes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration organized this effort to improve cloud and radiation models used in climate simulations.

Use Cases

• Modeling Lagrangian airmass evolution based on the tagged balloon tracking strategy described.
• Studying factors influencing marine stratocumulus cloud formation and dissipation, a primary goal of ASTEX.
• Estimating trace-gas and aerosol fluxes across the air/sea interface as mentioned in the MAGE experiment goals.
• Comparing impacts of natural and anthropogenic sulphur and hydrocarbons on marine aerosol chemistry.
• Validating satellite and airborne observation coordination methods for cloud system studies.

Strengths

• Data originates from a coordinated multinational field experiment designed to improve climate models.
• Balloon locations were fixed every 5 minutes, providing a high temporal resolution trajectory.
• The experiment combined satellite, airborne, and surface observations for a multi-platform view.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Altitude data quality depends on GPS satellite availability, as noted in the description.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Balloons (tetroons) launched from the ship Oceanus and tracked via GPS.

Time Range

June 1992

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:47:12.426385; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Eastern North Atlantic Ocean