WNA-FLEXPART-BackTraj-2005: 2005 Western North America Air Mass Back Trajectories

15-day backward simulations using the FLEXPART Lagrangian particle dispersion model, driven by ERA5 reanalysis data, establish source-receptor relationships for ozone observations over Western North America. The dataset provides global, hourly calculations at a 1° x 1° spatial resolution from the surface to 20 km altitude. It supports analysis of source contributions to tropospheric ozone across diurnal, seasonal, and decadal scales from 1994 to 2021.

Use Cases

• Attributing ozone pollution events in Western North America to source regions and atmospheric layers based on backward trajectory calculations.
• Analyzing seasonal and decadal trends in atmospheric transport patterns influencing ozone levels over nearly three decades.
• Investigating source contributions for other atmospheric components co-located with the defined ozone receptor sites.
• Validating or complementing atmospheric chemistry transport models with high-resolution Lagrangian dispersion simulations.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution global simulations with hourly temporal and 1° x 1° spatial granularity.
• Covers a long observational period, with receptor data matched to measurements from 1994 to 2021.
• Includes detailed per-receptor information, such as gridded ozone values, enabling subset analysis.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unspecified across all platforms.
• Conflicting last-updated dates exist between sources (2005-12 31 vs. 2026-04-09), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), generated with support from NASA’s Atmospheric Composition Campaign Data Analysis and Modeling program and the NASA High-End Computing Program.

Collection Method

Backward simulations using the FLEXPART dispersion model driven by ERA5 reanalysis meteorological data.

Time Range

1994 to 2021

Freshness

2026-04 09 20:36:13.015979

Geography

Global simulations with receptor focus on Western North America (WNA)