OWLETS-1: Ozone Gradients Over Chesapeake Bay

NASA's Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS-1) deployed a unique combination of aircraft, ozone lidars, drones, and ship-based measurements to examine coastal air quality. The campaign collected synchronous vertical profiles of pollutants and meteorology over the Chesapeake Bay from July 5 to August 3, 2017, focusing on the land-water interface. This analysis model data is intended to characterize gradients and fundamental processes affecting ozone concentrations in coastal environments.

Use Cases

• Modeling ozone concentration gradients based on synchronous over-land and over-water vertical measurements.
• Analyzing the impact of land-water boundary transitions on pollutant distribution using mobile and ship-based observations.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models with data from TOLNet ozone lidars, ozonesondes, and AERONET sun photometers.
• Studying vertical profiles of atmospheric water vapor, pressure, temperature, and winds in a coastal setting.

Strengths

• Data collection utilized a multi-platform approach including aircraft, UAVs, ships, and ground-based lidars, providing diverse measurement perspectives.
• Campaign design established synchronous measurement sites over land (NASA LaRC) and water (Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) to directly observe gradients.
• The study period included twelve intensive measurement days within a focused one-month field campaign.

Limitations

• Specific column names, data size, and row counts are not provided by any source, limiting assessment of structure and scale.
• Conflicting 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2017 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026 on Data.gov) creates uncertainty about data currency.
• Documentation of the specific analysis model and its output variables is not detailed in the provided descriptions.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), supported by the NASA Science Innovation Fund (SIF).

Collection Method

Field campaign utilizing aircraft, TOLNet ozone lidars, UAVs/drones, ozonesondes, AERONET sun photometers, and mobile/ship-based measurements.

Time Range

July 5, 2017 – August 3, 2017 (OWLETS-1). Campaign description also references OWLETS-2 from June 6 – July 6, 2018.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:24:48.562428 (Data.gov), but conflicts with NASA Earthdata date of 2017-07-22.

Geography

Chesapeake Bay, USA, with primary sites at NASA LaRC (land) and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (water).