PACE Satellite Validation Data from Ground-Based Spectroradiometer Network

2024-2026 data from a NASA/Pandora network of in-house built SMART-s spectrometers deployed to validate the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission. The dataset supports two primary tasks: evaluating atmospheric-corrected water-leaving radiance/reflectance for the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) and validating PACE aerosol and cloud products. Measurements are planned for oceanic sites off California and for atmospheric studies in Taiwan during the 7-SEAS campaigns.

Use Cases

• Validating OCI's 17 spectral bands of water-leaving radiance/reflectance by integrating ground-based SMART-s measurements with OCI's spectral response functions.
• Retrieving columnar aerosol properties such as spectral AOD, single-scattering albedo, and Ångström exponent from SMART-s direct-Sun and sky measurements.
• Quantifying trace gas abundances including O3, NO2, and H2O vapor to support atmospheric correction and air quality studies.
• Improving spatial-spectral-temporal sampling for satellite intercomparison by leveraging flexible, programmable SMART-s scans at coastal and remote sites.

Strengths

• Uses high-resolution (~0.8 nm) spectrometry across a broad spectral range (330-870 nm) for detailed atmospheric and oceanic measurements.
• Follows established operational criteria from AERONET-OC and published SMART-s methods (Jeong et al., 2018, 2020, 2022) for data consistency and retrieval quality.
• Leverages international field campaigns (7-SEAS 2024-2026) to maximize data utility for scientific studies across multiple platforms.

Limitations

• Key structural metadata is missing across all sources: column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown.
• The license is inconsistently reported as 'other-license-specified' on some platforms and 'None' on others, creating uncertainty for reuse.
• Dataset appears to be planned or in-progress, as descriptions focus on proposed tasks and future campaigns, limiting current usability.

Provenance

Source

NASA/Pandora network and OB_DAAC

Collection Method

Ground-based measurements from deployed SMART-s (Spectral Measurements for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer-spectrometer) units.

Time Range

2024-2026

Freshness

2026-03-12 20:36:19.923525

Geography

Eureka Oil Platform, California (~8 miles off Long Beach) and Taiwan.