FLEXPART Carbon Dioxide Influence Functions for ACT-America Flights

NASA's FLEXPART Influence Functions dataset contains Lagrangian particle dispersion simulations quantifying carbon dioxide source-receptor relationships. The data were generated for five ACT-America airborne campaign deployments over the eastern United States between 2016 and 2019. Simulations track 5,000 particles backward from flight track intervals, driven by 27-km WRF-Chem or ERA-Interim meteorology.

Use Cases

• Analyzing source-receptor relationships for carbon dioxide using backward-in-time particle trajectories.
• Validating and improving atmospheric transport models with airborne observation data from specific flight intervals.
• Estimating regional carbon fluxes by combining influence functions with measured CO2 concentration anomalies.
• Studying the sensitivity of airborne CO2 measurements to upwind surface sources and sinks over 10-20 day periods.

Strengths

• Simulations cover five distinct airborne campaign deployments over a multi-year period (2016-2019).
• Each receptor interval releases a high number of particles (5,000) for detailed dispersion modeling.
• Data integrates multiple high-resolution meteorological drivers (27-km WRF-Chem and ERA-Interim).
• Provides outputs in both netCDF and specialized FLEXPART binary formats for different user needs.

Limitations

• Core metadata conflicts: 'last updated' dates differ significantly between Data.gov (2026) and NASA Earthdata (2019).
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column names are not provided by any source.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Lagrangian particle dispersion simulations using the FLEXPART model in backward mode.

Time Range

2016-2019

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:40:20.402449

Geography

Eastern United States, along ACT-America flight tracks.