Nitrogen Deposition Maps for the US and Western Europe

NASA's dataset provides wet and dry nitrogen-species deposition data for the United States and Western Europe, collected from 1978 to 1994. The data, sourced from official monitoring networks, was processed using kriging to create 0.5 x 0.5 degree resolution gridded maps and site-level monthly averages. It serves as a foundational resource for atmospheric and terrestrial ecosystem modeling.

Use Cases

• Validating regional atmospheric chemistry models using spatially explicit wet and dry nitrogen flux maps.
• Constructing continental-scale nitrogen budgets with site-level monthly deposition averages.
• Analyzing long-term trends in acid deposition and nutrient cycling from 1978-1994 monitoring data.
• Providing critical inputs for terrestrial ecosystem models of biogeochemistry and land-atmosphere exchange.

Strengths

• Data spans a 17-year period for wet deposition (1978-1994) and a 6-year period for dry deposition (1989-1994).
• Employed a standard geostatistical method (kriging) for spatial interpolation to a consistent 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid.
• Includes 11 derived nitrogen-species deposition maps and companion quality assurance plans from monitoring networks.
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA Earthdata signals established importance and curation.

Limitations

• Analysis was limited by original sampling density, frequency, and spatial coverage of monitoring networks.
• Conflicting metadata: Data.gov lists a 2026 last update, while NASA Earthdata indicates a 1994 end date for the data itself.
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided across any source.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with data acquired from U.S. and European monitoring programs.

Collection Method

Direct acquisition from monitoring networks, evaluated with similar QA criteria, and interpolated using kriging.

Time Range

1978 to 1994

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:18:57.424546

Geography

United States and Western Europe