NARSTO EPA Supersite Baltimore: LIDAR Backscatter and Mixing Height Data, 2001-2002

NARSTO_EPA_SS_BALTIMORE_JHU_MET_DATA contains aerosol backscatter and mixing height measurements from the EPA Particulate Matter Supersites Program. The Johns Hopkins University Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering collected the data from May 2001 to September 2002 in Baltimore using a miniature elastic backscatter LIDAR. The dataset includes large ASCII files of backscatter data, calculated mixing heights, and HTML applications with color images of LIDAR profiles.

Use Cases

• Analyze daytime aerosol backscatter vertical profiles to study mixing layer composition and dynamics.
• Determine atmospheric mixing heights under cloud-free conditions based on LIDAR profile data.
• Investigate urban particulate matter (PM) characteristics and transport as part of the EPA Supersites Program research priorities.
• Compare and evaluate LIDAR-based measurement methods for aerosol characterization.

Strengths

• Data collected with high-resolution instrumentation: typical vertical resolution of 3 meters and time steps of 5 seconds.
• Provides continuous daytime sampling over a defined period from May 2001 to September 2002.
• Includes companion HTML applications with color images for visualizing LIDAR backscatter signal profiles.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data collection was limited to daytime and cloud-free conditions for mixing height determination.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Johns Hopkins University, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, as part of the NARSTO/EPA PM Supersites Program.

Collection Method

Measurements taken with a miniature elastic backscatter LIDAR operated in vertical mode at several Baltimore locations.

Time Range

May 2001 to September 2002

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:59:22.530140; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Baltimore, Maryland, USA