SONEX: DC-8 Aircraft In-Situ Aerosol Measurements

SONEX_Aerosol_AircraftInSitu_DC8_Data_1 contains in-situ aerosol measurements from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the 1997 SASS Ozone and NOx Experiment. The international campaign investigated the impact of subsonic aircraft emissions on atmospheric composition in the North Atlantic Flight Corridor. Instrumentation included condensation nuclei counters, particle impactors, and spectrometers to measure aerosol concentration and chemical composition.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the chemical composition of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium aerosols from aircraft emissions.
• Studying aerosol concentration and particle size distributions measured by CNCs, PCASP, and FSSP instruments.
• Modeling the impact of NOx and aerosol emissions on upper tropospheric ozone chemistry.
• Investigating spatial patterns of pollution in the North Atlantic Flight Corridor from targeted flight sampling.

Strengths

• Data originates from a well-documented, international multi-organizational campaign (NASA and DLR) with a specific scientific mission.
• In-situ measurements provide direct observations of atmospheric state variables from a dedicated research aircraft platform.
• Campaign employed multiple targeted sampling approaches to study air parcels affected by aircraft emissions.

Limitations

• Key metadata is missing: specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (1997 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026 on Data.gov), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected via in-situ instrumentation onboard a NASA DC-8 research aircraft.

Time Range

October-November 1997

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:43:51.846192

Geography

North Atlantic Flight Corridor, with primary staging in Bangor, Maine (US) and Shannon, Ireland.