Abstract
The ACT-America project is a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital-2 mission designed to study the transport and fluxes of greenhouse gases. The open and freely available ACT-America data sets provide airborne in situ measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, trace gases, aerosols, clouds, and meteorological properties, airborne remote sensing measurements of aerosol backscatter, atmospheric boundary layer height and columnar content of atmospheric carbon dioxide, tower-based measurements, and modeled atmospheric mole fractions and regional carbon fluxes of greenhouse gases over the Central and Eastern United States. We conducted 121 research flights during five campaigns in four seasons during 2016–2019 over three regions of the US (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South) using two NASA research aircraft (B-200 and C-130). We performed three flight patterns (fair weather, frontal crossings, and OCO-2 underflights) and collected more than 1,140 h of airborne measurements via level-leg flights in the atmospheric boundary layer, lower, and upper free troposphere and vertical profiles spanning these altitudes. We also merged various airborne in situ measurements onto a common standard sampling interval, which brings coherence to the data, creates geolocated data products, and makes it much easier for the users to perform holistic analysis of the ACT-America data products. Here, we report on detailed information of data sets collected, the workflow for data sets including storage and processing of the quality controlled and quality assured harmonized observations, and their archival and formatting for users. Finally, we provide some important information on the dissemination of data products including metadata and highlights of applications of ACT-America data sets.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2020EA001634 |
| Journal | Earth and Space Science |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2021 |
Funding
Complementary support for tower‐based measurements was provided by NASA grant NNX14AJ17 G and NIST grant 70NANB15H336. NASA co‐authors were supported by NASA Science Mission Directorate funding awarded in response to the Earth Venture Suborbital‐2 Announcement of Opportunity NNH13ZDA001N‐EVS2. Roiger was supported by DLR VO‐R via the young investigator research group “Greenhouse Gases.” T. Lauvaux was supported by the French research program Make Our Planet Great Again (project CIUDAD). The authors acknowledge NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program Office, NASA's Airborne Sciences Program, NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center, as well as the administrative and flight forecasting support from PSU's Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences. The ACT‐America project is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Venture Suborbital 2 project funded by NASA's Earth Science Division. The ORNL DAAC is sponsored by NASA under Interagency Agreement 80GSFC19T0039. ORNL participation in ACT‐America was funded by NASA under interagency agreement NNL15AA10I (Wei, Shreshta, Boyer). Other co‐authors were supported by the following NASA grants: NNX15AG76 G to Penn State (Davis); NNX15AJ06 G (Baier, Sweeney) and NNX15AW47 G (Fried) to University of Colorado‐Boulder; NNX16AN17 G to Clark University (Williams); NNL15AQ00 B to Exelis (Dobler); 80NSSC19K0730 to Texas Tech and a Texas Tech University start up research grant (Pal); and NNX15AI97 G (O'Dell) to Colorado State University. The ACT-America project is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Venture Suborbital 2 project funded by NASA's Earth Science Division. The ORNL DAAC is sponsored by NASA under Interagency Agreement 80GSFC19T0039. ORNL participation in ACT-America was funded by NASA under interagency agreement NNL15AA10I (Wei, Shreshta, Boyer). Other co-authors were supported by the following NASA grants: NNX15AG76?G to Penn State (Davis); NNX15AJ06?G (Baier, Sweeney) and NNX15AW47?G (Fried) to University of Colorado-Boulder; NNX16AN17?G to Clark University (Williams); NNL15AQ00?B to Exelis (Dobler); 80NSSC19K0730 to Texas Tech and a Texas Tech University start up research grant (Pal); and NNX15AI97?G (O'Dell) to Colorado State University. Complementary support for tower-based measurements was provided by NASA grant NNX14AJ17?G and NIST grant 70NANB15H336. NASA co-authors were supported by NASA Science Mission Directorate funding awarded in response to the Earth Venture Suborbital-2 Announcement of Opportunity NNH13ZDA001N-EVS2. Roiger was supported by DLR VO-R via the young investigator research group ?Greenhouse Gases.? T. Lauvaux was supported by the French research program Make Our Planet Great Again (project CIUDAD). The authors acknowledge NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program Office, NASA's Airborne Sciences Program, NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center, as well as the administrative and flight forecasting support from PSU's Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences.
Keywords
- ACT-America
- atmospheric CH4
- atmospheric CO2
- data description
- meteorological properties
- trace gases