SONEX: Aircraft Emission Impact on Ozone via DIAL Lidar

October-November 1997 saw the SONEX and POLINAT-2 campaigns, an international mission to study aircraft emissions in the North Atlantic Flight Corridor. The dataset contains Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) remotely sensed data collected onboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft, targeting nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone (O3), and related atmospheric constituents. It supports analysis of how subsonic aircraft emissions perturb upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric chemistry and radiative forcing.

Use Cases

• Quantifying the perturbation of upper tropospheric ozone based on in-situ measurements of NOx, CO, and hydrocarbons.
• Analyzing the impact of meteorological events like convection and stratospheric intrusions on pollutant transport using targeted flight data.
• Studying the radiative forcing effects of aircraft-emitted water vapor, soot, and sulfur oxides on clouds and aerosols.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models with observations from a coordinated, multi-aircraft campaign in a heavily trafficked flight corridor.

Strengths

• Data originates from a targeted, international campaign (SONEX/POLINAT-2) with coordinated flights from NASA and DLR aircraft.
• The DC-8 payload measured a wide suite of co-located atmospheric variables, including NOx, O3, CO, aerosols, and water vapor, enabling multi-parameter analysis.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: specific column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1997 and 2026) suggest potential metadata inconsistencies across platform entries.
• The license is vaguely specified as 'other-license-specified', requiring further investigation for reuse.

Provenance

Source

NASA/Ames Research Center (DC-8 aircraft) in partnership with German Aerospace Agency (DLR) for the SONEX/POLINAT-2 campaign.

Collection Method

Remotely sensed data collected via Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) instrument onboard the DC-8 aircraft during targeted flights.

Time Range

October-November 1997

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:16:02.970375

Geography

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