NAMMA Senegal Atmospheric and Soil Flux Measurements

NASA's NAMMA Senegal Radiosonde and Tower Flux dataset contains atmospheric and soil measurements from a field campaign in West Africa. The data was collected in August 2006 from a tower in Kawasara, Senegal, and aircraft to study African Easterly Waves and Mesoscale Convective Systems. This dataset is managed by the NASA GHRC DAAC and is available on multiple government data platforms.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between soil temperature/moisture and surface heat flux using the soil temperature and heat flux columns.
• Studying wind profile evolution with upper-level wind speed and direction data from radiosondes.
• Modeling surface energy budgets by combining photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) with air temperature and humidity measurements.
• Investigating African Easterly Wave (AEW) structure using coordinated tower flux and aircraft-based wind observations.
• Validating satellite-derived soil moisture or atmospheric water vapor products with in-situ humidity and soil moisture indicators.

Strengths

• Data originates from a coordinated NASA field campaign (NAMMA) with defined scientific objectives.
• Includes multi-source measurements from a surface tower and aircraft, providing vertical and surface context.
• Covers key atmospheric and soil variables like wind, temperature, humidity, radiation, and heat flux.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the last updated date is listed as both 2006-09-17 and 2026-03-12.
• No row counts, file sizes, or specific column names are provided by the sources, limiting immediate assessment of data volume and structure.

Provenance

Source

NASA Science Mission Directorate, generated by the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign.

Collection Method

Field measurements from a surface observation tower in Kawasara, Senegal, and aircraft-based instruments.

Time Range

August 2006

Freshness

The most recent update date referenced is 2026-03-12, but this conflicts with an earlier 2006 date.

Geography

Kawasara, Senegal, and the surrounding West African region, including the Cape Verde Islands.