STAQS Project: Airborne and Ground Air Quality Measurements for North American Cities

NASA's STAQS mission integrates TEMPO satellite observations with traditional air quality monitoring. The mission was conducted during summer 2023, targeting urban areas including Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. Data includes measurements from two instrumented aircraft, ground-based ozone profiles, and spectrometer networks.

Use Cases

• Validate TEMPO satellite Level 2 data products based on concurrent airborne and ground measurements.
• Analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of air quality events tracked by TEMPO.
• Improve emission estimates for anthropogenic, biogenic, and greenhouse gases based on high-resolution mapping data.
• Assess the benefit of assimilating geostationary satellite data into air quality forecast models.

Strengths

• Data collection is complete, providing a finalized dataset for analysis.
• Integrates multiple measurement platforms: satellite, two aircraft, and ground-based networks.
• Targets specific, high-priority urban areas (Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago).

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 may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the summer 2023 campaign period.

Provenance

Source

NASA Synergistic TEMPO Air Quality Science (STAQS) mission.

Collection Method

Collected via airborne campaigns (Gulfstream-V and Gulfstream-III aircraft) and ground-based monitoring networks.

Time Range

Summer 2023.

Freshness

Data collection was completed in summer 2023; last update date is unknown.

Geography

North America, specifically targeting Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago.