SAFARI 2000 Aerosol Index Data for Southern Africa Dry Season

NASA's Earth Probe TOMS instrument captured daily Aerosol Index measurements over Southern Africa from August 12 to September 25, 2000, for the SAFARI 2000 Dry Season Aircraft Campaign. This Level-3 gridded product quantifies absorbing aerosols like dust and smoke across a region from 40°S to the Equator and 40°W to 80°E. The dataset, processed by NASA's Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, includes ASCII data files and JPEG images for each day.

Use Cases

• Tracking the spatial and temporal evolution of biomass burning smoke plumes during the Southern African dry season.
• Analyzing daily Aerosol Index values to distinguish between absorbing aerosols (dust, smoke) and non-absorbing types.
• Studying cross-boundary aerosol transport, as TOMS was the first instrument to observe aerosols crossing land/sea boundaries.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models with gridded, geolocated aerosol measurements from a defined campaign period.
• Investigating specific events like desert dust storms within the defined geographic bounding box.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's authoritative Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch and the TOMS instrument.
• Provides a focused 45-day time series during a key regional campaign (SAFARI 2000).
• Covers a specific, wide geographic area (40°S to Equator, 40°W to 80°E) with daily granularity.

Limitations

• Conflicting metadata exists: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-03 -12 (likely an error), while another shows 2000-09-30.
• The dataset is limited to a single, historical 45-day period from 2000, reducing contemporary applicability.
• Aerosol identification is noted as imperfect due to geophysical factors like aerosols being too close to the ground.

Provenance

Source

Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, NASA/GSFC

Collection Method

Measured radiances from the Earth Probe (EP) Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite instrument, processed into a daily gridded Level-3 product.

Time Range

2000-08-12 to 2000-09-25

Freshness

2000-09-30 23:59:59.999000

Geography

40°S to the Equator, 40°W to 80°E (Southern Africa and surrounding regions)