NASA ABLE-2 Project: Amazonian Atmospheric Chemistry from Aircraft Campaigns

Amazon Basin data from the NASA ABLE-2A and ABLE-2B suborbital campaigns conducted in 1985 and 1987. The dataset contains in-situ aerosol and trace gas measurements collected onboard the NASA Lockheed Electra aircraft, including CO2, CO, ozone, and aerosol composition. NASA conducted these campaigns in partnership with Brazilian research agencies INPE and INPA as part of the Global Tropospheric Experiment.

Use Cases

• Modeling tropical carbon monoxide sources and sinks based on in-situ CO measurements.
• Analyzing seasonal (dry vs. wet) atmospheric composition differences based on the ABLE-2A and ABLE-2B campaign structure.
• Studying aerosol-cloud interactions in the Amazon rainforest based on aerosol composition and size data.
• Investigating vertical profiles of trace gases and ozone based on aircraft flight data and lidar measurements.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for both the ABLE-2A (15 flights) and ABLE-2B (21 flights) campaigns.
• Includes a variety of measured parameters such as trace gases, aerosols, and meteorological data.
• Campaigns were conducted in partnership with authoritative Brazilian research institutions INPE and INPA.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from a specific historical period (1985-1987); temporal coverage is limited.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.

Provenance

Source

NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE), Amazon Boundary Layer Experiment (ABLE-2).

Collection Method

In-situ measurements collected onboard the NASA Electra aircraft using chemiluminescence, gas traps, cryogenic air samples, and IR lasers.

Time Range

ABLE-2A: July-August 1985; ABLE-2B: April-May 1987.

Freshness

Data collection is complete; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Amazon region, Brazil.