WNA-FLEXPART-BackTraj-2016: Western North America Air Mass Trajectories

WNA-FLEXPART-BackTraj-2016 is a 2016 Western North America back trajectory dataset from NASA using the FLEXPART dispersion model. It provides 15-day backward simulations of airmass transport at hourly temporal and 1° x 1° spatial resolution from the surface to 20 km altitude, driven by ERA5 reanalysis data. The model output supports source-receptor relationship analysis for gridded ozone observations from 1994-2021 and can be applied to other co-located atmospheric components.

Use Cases

• Identifying source regions contributing to ozone pollution events based on backward trajectory calculations.
• Analyzing seasonal or decadal changes in atmospheric transport patterns over Western North America using the multi-decadal receptor matching (1994-2021).
• Estimating source contributions from different atmospheric layers (surface to 20 km) to downwind observations.
• Supporting source contribution analyses for other atmospheric components co-located with the defined ozone receptor grid.

Strengths

• Provides global simulations at high spatiotemporal resolution (hourly, 1° x 1°)
• Covers a long observational period through matched receptors (1994-2021)
• Includes detailed vertical profiling from the surface up to 20 km altitude

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unspecified across all platforms.
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between sources (2016-12-31 vs. 2026-04-09), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Generated using the FLEXPART dispersion model driven by ERA5 reanalysis data.

Time Range

1994-2021

Freshness

2026-04-09 20:35:45.494005

Geography

Global simulations with receptor focus on Western North America