The ORNL DAAC recently released a new version of the following Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) dataset by Commane, R., et al. (2021):
ATom: Measurements from the Quantum Cascade Laser System (QCLS), Version 2
This dataset provides atmospheric concentrations of CO2, CH4, CO, and N2O measured by the Harvard Quantum Cascade Laser System (QCLS) instruments during the four airborne campaigns conducted by NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission. The QCLS DUAL instrument simultaneously measures CO, CH4, and N2O concentrations, in situ, using two thermoelectrically cooled pulsed-quantum cascade lasers light sources, a multiple pass absorption cell, and two liquid nitrogen-cooled solid-state detectors. The QCLS CO2 instrument measures CO2 concentrations in situ using a thermoelectrically cooled pulsed-quantum cascade laser light source, gas cells, and liquid nitrogen cooled solid-state detectors. The CO2 mixing ratio of air flowing through the sample gas cell is determined by measuring absorption from a single infrared transition line at 4.32 microns relative to a reference gas of known concentration.
This is Version 2 of this dataset and includes current data for all four ATom campaigns conducted for the mission.
The Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) is a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital-2 mission to study the impact of human-produced air pollution on greenhouse gases and on chemically reactive gases in the atmosphere. ATom deployed an extensive gas and aerosol payload on the NASA DC-8 aircraft for systematic, global-scale sampling of the atmosphere, profiling continuously from 0.2 to 12 km altitude. Around-the-world flights were conducted in each of four seasons between 2016 and 2018.
Additional data from ATom and other relevant links can be found on the ORNL DAAC's ATom Project Page.
Citation: Commane, R., J.W. Budney, Y. Gonzalez ramos, M. Sargent, S.C. Wofsy, and B.C. Daube. 2021. ATom: Measurements from the Quantum Cascade Laser System (QCLS), Version 2. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1932