NASA CITE-2 Project: Aircraft In-Situ Aerosol and Trace Gas Data

The CITE-2_Aerosol_AircraftInSitu_Electra_Data collection contains in-situ trace gas measurements from the NASA Electra aircraft during the Chemical Instrumentation Test and Evaluation - 2 (CITE-2) campaign. NASA conducted this suborbital campaign in August 1986 as part of the Global Tropospheric Experiment to test instrumentation and study odd nitrogen photochemistry. The data collection is complete and includes measurements over California and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Use Cases

• Intercomparison of airborne measurement instruments for nitrogen species like NO2, HNO3, and PAN based on the campaign's primary objective.
• Studying the abundance and partitioning of odd nitrogen family members in the troposphere based on the described research questions.
• Analyzing relationships between odd nitrogen species and ancillary measurements like CO and ozone for photochemistry studies.
• Evaluating historical calibration standards for atmospheric trace gases based on the ground-based component of the campaign.

Strengths

• Data collection is explicitly stated as complete, providing a finalized record.
• Campaign had a focused objective on evaluating instrumentation and daytime odd nitrogen photochemistry.
• Includes ancillary measurements such as temperature, dew point, wind velocity, and aircraft position to provide context.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a specific campaign in 1986; temporal coverage is limited and may not reflect current atmospheric conditions.

Provenance

Source

NASA

Collection Method

In-situ data collected onboard the NASA Lockheed Electra aircraft using forward scattering spectrometers and other instrumentation.

Time Range

August 1986

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Measurements over California and the eastern Pacific Ocean, based at Moffett Field, California.