NASA PACE-PAX: Airborne In-Situ Data for Satellite Validation, September 2024

Sixty flight hours were planned for each of NASA's ER-2 and CIRPAS Twin Otter aircraft during the PACE-PAX campaign in September 2024. The campaign collected analysis and facility instrument data over Southern and Central California to validate and refine data products from the PACE satellite mission. Data collection is complete and includes measurements from instruments like the Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS) and Passive-Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe (PCASP).

Use Cases

• Validate PACE satellite ocean color and aerosol retrieval algorithms based on coordinated airborne in-situ measurements.
• Assess spatial and temporal scale impacts on satellite validation based on the campaign's coordinated flight and overpass strategy.
• Refine radiometric and polarimetric property retrievals based on the robust suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments.
• Study specific atmospheric phenomena like high-aerosol loads over land and ocean based on targeted flight objectives.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete for the September 2024 campaign, providing a finalized dataset.
• Campaign involved coordinated measurements from two aircraft, satellite overpasses, and ground/ocean observations.
• Includes data from a specific suite of instruments such as CAS, CIP, and PCASP.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.
• Data is geographically focused on Southern and Central California, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

NASA airborne campaign (PACE-PAX), likely from the CIRPAS facility.

Collection Method

In-situ data collected onboard the CIRPAS Twin Otter aircraft during coordinated flights.

Time Range

September 2024

Freshness

Data collection occurred in September 2024 and is complete; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions