NAAMES C-130: Aerosol and Cloud Remote Sensing Data from North Atlantic Campaigns

North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) remotely sensed cloud, aerosol, and ocean optical measurements collected onboard a NASA C-130 aircraft. The dataset covers four seasonal deployments from 2015 to 2018, funded by NASA's Earth-Venture Suborbital mission. It links ocean ecosystem processes with atmospheric aerosol evolution and processing.

Use Cases

• Modeling seasonal phytoplankton impacts on atmospheric aerosols based on the four targeted deployment phases.
• Analyzing aerosol optical properties and cloud droplet distributions from airborne remote sensing measurements.
• Studying ocean-atmosphere coupling by linking ocean ecosystem data with atmospheric aerosol evolution.
• Validating satellite-derived aerosol and cloud property data with in-situ airborne measurements.

Strengths

• Data from a dedicated NASA Earth-Venture Suborbital mission with four deployments spanning 2015-2018.
• Focuses on the coupled ocean ecosystem and atmosphere, a stated primary goal of the NAAMES project.
• Includes measurements from a NASA C-130 aircraft based in Newfoundland, Canada, targeting the North Atlantic Ocean.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Most ocean data products reside in a separate companion archive, requiring data joins.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Remotely sensed measurements collected onboard the NASA Wallops Flight Facility C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Time Range

Four deployments from November 2015 to April 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 00:04:25.035173; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean, with aircraft based at St. John's International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada.