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FIREX-AQ ER-2 Cloud Physics Lidar Remotely Sensed Data

Metadata Updated: January 29, 2026

FIREXAQ_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_ER2_CPL_Data are remotely sensed data collected by the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) onboard the ER-2 aircraft during FIREX-AQ. Data collection for this product is complete.Completed during summer 2019, FIREX-AQ utilized a combination of instrumented airplanes, satellites, and ground-based instrumentation. Detailed fire plume sampling was carried out by the NASA DC-8 aircraft, which had a comprehensive instrument payload capable of measuring over 200 trace gas species, as well as aerosol microphysical, optical, and chemical properties. The DC-8 aircraft completed 23 science flights, including 15 flights from Boise, Idaho and 8 flights from Salina, Kansas. NASA’s ER-2 completed 11 flights, partially in support of the FIREX-AQ effort. The ER-2 payload was made up of 8 satellite analog instruments and provided critical fire information, including fire temperature, fire plume heights, and vegetation/soil albedo information. NOAA provided the NOAA-CHEM Twin Otter and the NOAA-MET Twin Otter aircraft to measure chemical processing in the lofted plumes of Western wildfires. The NOAA-CHEM Twin Otter focused on nighttime plume chemistry, from which data is archived at the NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC). The NOAA-MET Twin Otter collected measurements of air movements at fire boundaries with the goal of understanding the local weather impacts of fires and the movement patterns of fires. NOAA-MET Twin Otter data will be archived at the ASDC in the future. Additionally, a ground-based station in McCall, Idaho and several mobile laboratories provided in-situ measurements of aerosol microphysical and optical properties, aerosol chemical compositions, and trace gas species. The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) campaign was a NOAA/NASA interagency intensive study of North American fires to gain an understanding on the integrated impact of the fire emissions on the tropospheric chemistry and composition and to assess the satellite’s capability for detecting fires and estimating fire emissions. The overarching goal of FIREX-AQ was to provide measurements of trace gas and aerosol emissions for wildfires and prescribed fires in great detail, relate them to fuel and fire conditions at the point of emission, characterize the conditions relating to plume rise, and follow plumes downwind to understand chemical transformation and air quality impacts.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date January 29, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date January 29, 2026
Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/ASDC/FIREXAQ_AerosolCloud_AircraftRemoteSensing_ER2_CPL_Data_1
Data Last Modified 2026-01-27
Category Earth Science
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ebd8c8c6-cde3-4890-8ee0-a6d488a43e7d
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/citing-data
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":15,"Longitude":-135},{"Latitude":15,"Longitude":-75},{"Latitude":60,"Longitude":-75},{"Latitude":60,"Longitude":-135},{"Latitude":15,"Longitude":-135}}}, Maximum Altitude, 25000.0 Meters
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b4ce76cfedf1984b5fc47a087e4f524579b1db6134e7e3fb96a8ef43897cf34e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2019-07-31/2019-07-31

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