Atmospheric chemistry observational databases
Databases of atmospheric chemistry observations from multiple platforms.
For two centuries, chemical data about the environment have been collected from the ground, aircraft, and satellites, then stored in databases. Most of these databases are open to the public. This information is vital for studying the atmosphere, including climate change, ozone loss, and air pollution. Several external websites gather many of these datasets in one place. One example is the Cambridge Atmospheric Chemical Database, which holds observations in a consistent ASCII format, each record also including details like temperature, potential temperature, geopotential height, and equivalent PV latitude.
Quick Facts
- Mkiv interferometer first deployed
- 1984
- Mkiv interferometer ground-based observa
- over 900
- Mozaic program initiated
- 1993
- Adeos (midori) launch date
- August 17, 1996
Facts from the source article.
Ground-based and balloon observations
The Network for the Detection for Stratospheric Change (NDSC) comprises high-quality remote-sounding research stations that target ozone and key ozone-related chemical compounds and parameters. Endorsed by agencies including the International Ozone Commission, UNEP, and WMO, the NDSC uses primary instruments such as ozone lidar (profiles from the tropopause to at least 40 km), temperature lidar (30 to 80 km), aerosol lidar, water vapor lidar, ozone microwave (20 to 70 km), H2O microwave (20 to 80 km), ClO microwave (25 to 45 km), ultraviolet/visible spectrographs (column abundances of ozone, NO2, OClO, and BrO), and Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometers (column abundances of ozone, HCl, NO, NO2, ClONO2, and HNO3). The MkIV Interferometer, a Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectrometer built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1984, remotely senses atmospheric composition via solar absorption spectrometry. It has participated in three NASA DC-8 polar aircraft campaigns, completed 15 balloon flights, and made over 900 days of ground-based observations from locations including McMurdo, Antarctica in 1986.
Airborne observations
Many aircraft campaigns have been conducted as part of the Suborbital Science Program and by the Earth Science Project Office, with data accessible from the Earth Science Project Office archives. The MOZAIC program, initiated in 1993 by European scientists, aircraft manufacturers, and airlines, collects automatic and regular measurements of ozone and water vapor from five long-range passenger airliners flying worldwide. Its data provide detailed ozone and water vapor climatologies at 9–12 km, a critical domain for subsonic aircraft exhaust and radiative and transport exchanges. MOZAIC data are restricted access, requiring forms to be filled out. The CARIBIC project deploys an airfreight container with automated scientific apparatuses on board the Airbus A340-600 "Leverkusen," connected to an air and particle inlet. Unlike MOZAIC, CARIBIC is installed on one aircraft but measures a wider spectrum of atmospheric constituents. Both CARIBIC and MOZAIC are integrated in IAGOS. CARIBIC data exist from 1998–2002 and from 2004 to the present, and can be requested via its data access page.
Space shuttle observations
The ATMOS instrument, an infrared Fourier transform interferometer, studies the chemical makeup of the atmosphere. It has flown on the Space Shuttle four times since 1985, and its earlier version was carried on aircraft and high-altitude balloons. The CRISTA experiment, developed by the University of Wuppertal, uses three telescopes and four spectrometers cooled by liquid helium. This limb-scanning satellite system creates global maps of temperature and trace gases with fine horizontal and vertical detail, covering altitudes from 15 to 150 kilometers.
Satellite observations
The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite, also known as SCISAT-1, is a Canadian satellite that makes measurements of the Earth's atmosphere. Aura flies in formation with the NASA EOS "A Train" and carries four instruments for atmospheric chemistry studies: MLS, HIRDLS, TES, and OMI. The Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement II (POAM II) instrument, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, measures vertical distributions of ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, aerosol extinction, and temperature via solar extinction in nine narrow band channels from approximately 350 to 1060 nm.
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