VIRGAS: Aircraft Meteorology and Navigation Data

October 2015 data from the VIRGAS campaign, consisting of six science flights based from Houston, TX. The dataset contains in-situ meteorological and navigational measurements from NASA's Meteorological Measurement System (MMS), including temperature, pressure, and 3-D winds at 1 Hz and 20 Hz frequencies. It was collected to test instrument readiness for investigating volcanic eruptions and their impact on stratospheric aerosols and the ozone layer.

Use Cases

• Analyzing 3-D wind patterns in volcanic plumes based on the wind component data.
• Studying atmospheric temperature and pressure profiles during aircraft flights.
• Assessing sulfur dioxide and ozone concentrations in volcanic emissions based on the described LIF SO2 and UASO3 instrument data.
• Testing instrument calibration and readiness for future volcanic eruption investigations.

Strengths

• Contains high-frequency (20 Hz) data for key meteorological variables from 5 flights.
• Data collection is complete for the October 2015 campaign.
• Led by researchers from NOAA CSL and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Limitations

• Column names and exact data structure are not specified in the provided metadata.
• Conflicting metadata: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-04-09, while another lists 2015-10-31.
• Dataset size and row counts are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Meteorological Measurement System (MMS), NOAA LASER-Induced Fluorescence (LIF SO2), NOAA Unmanned Aircraft System O3 Photometer (UASO3)

Collection Method

Data collected in-situ during aircraft flights.

Time Range

October 2015

Freshness

2026-04-09 (from one platform, conflicting with another)

Geography

Flights based from Houston, TX; specific flight paths unknown.