Western North America Air Mass Back Trajectory Data for Ozone Analysis

Hourly, 15-day backward simulations model air mass transport to receptor sites across Western North America from 1994 to 2021. The dataset uses the FLEXPART Lagrangian particle dispersion model driven by ERA5 reanalysis data at a 1° x 1° spatial resolution from the surface to 20 km altitude. It was produced with support from NASA's Atmospheric Composition Campaign Data Analysis and Modeling program and High-End Computing resources.

Use Cases

• Identifying source regions contributing to observed ozone levels at specific receptor sites using the gridded ozone value product.
• Analyzing seasonal or decadal changes in atmospheric transport patterns over Western North America using the 28-year time series.
• Investigating vertical transport of air masses from different atmospheric layers up to 20 km above ground level.
• Supporting source contribution analysis for other atmospheric components co-located with the defined ozone receptor sites.

Strengths

• Covers a 28-year period (1994-2021) for long-term trend analysis.
• Provides high temporal (hourly) and spatial (1° x 1°) resolution for detailed transport modeling.
• Simulations extend vertically from the surface to 20 km altitude, covering the full troposphere.

Limitations

• Core metadata such as row count, column names, and dataset size are unknown across all platforms.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2017-12-31 vs. 2026-03-12).
• The license is specified as 'other-license-specified' but the exact terms are not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Atmospheric Composition Campaign Data Analysis and Modeling program, with computing from the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division.

Collection Method

Backward simulations using the FLEXPART Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model driven by ERA5 reanalysis data.

Time Range

1994-2021

Freshness

2026-03-12 19:53:28.194035

Geography

Global simulations with receptor locations focused on Western North America (WNA).