SCOAPE-II Shipboard Atmospheric Measurements for Offshore Air Quality

SCOAPE-II R/V Point Sur Data contains in-situ atmospheric measurements collected from instruments onboard a research vessel during the May 2024 Satellite Coastal and Oceanic Atmospheric Pollution Experiment. The dataset was produced by NASA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to assess pollution from offshore oil and gas activities and validate satellite observations like TEMPO NO2 columns. Data collection is complete, with measurements from sun photometers, ceilometers, aethalometers, anemometers, and pyranometers.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-derived nitrogen dioxide (NO2) column data from the TEMPO instrument using shipboard in-situ measurements.
• Analyzing methane column enhancements from oil and gas plumes in the Gulf of Mexico for pollution source attribution.
• Assessing aerosol optical depth, Angstrom exponent, and cloud base height to characterize atmospheric particulates and cloud properties.
• Correlating surface wind speed, wind direction, and surface temperature with pollutant dispersion patterns over water.
• Comparing total precipitable water vapor and ozone profile data with aircraft (AVIRIS-3) and satellite observations for multi-platform validation.

Strengths

• Data originates from a coordinated NASA-BOEM interagency campaign, ensuring a defined scientific purpose for regulatory assessment.
• Includes measurements from multiple instrument types (sun photometers, ceilometers, aethalometers, anemometers, pyranometers) for multi-parameter analysis.
• Supports validation of next-generation satellite instruments like TEMPO, which provides hourly scans for air quality monitoring.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: exact row count, file size, and a complete column list are not provided on any platform.
• License is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on Data.gov but 'None' on NASA Earthdata, creating access uncertainty.
• The temporal coverage is only specified as the campaign period (May 2024), with no precise start/end dates or time granularity detailed.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Data collected from instruments onboard the University of Southern Mississippi’s Research Vessel (R/V) Point Sur during the SCOAPE-II field campaign.

Time Range

May 2024

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:05:19.938501

Geography

Gulf of Mexico (specified as 'Gulf of America' in source descriptions)