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ORACLES Model Derived Measurements

Metadata Updated: September 18, 2025

ORACLES_Model_Data consists of model-derived estimates for aerosol time since emissions (days), calculated with the Weather Research and Aerosol Aware Microphysics (WRF-AAM) Model collected for the ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractions sub-orbital (ORACLES) campaign. Data collection is complete, and data is available for all three deployments (August 19, 2016 – October 27, 2016; August 1, 2017 – September 4, 2017; September 21, 2018 – October 27, 2018).Southern Africa produces almost one-third of the Earth’s biomass burning aerosol particles. The ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) experiment was a five year investigation with three intensive observation periods (August 19, 2016 – October 27, 2016; August 1, 2017 – September 4, 2017; September 21, 2018 – October 27, 2018) and was designed to study key processes that determine the climate impacts of African biomass burning aerosols. ORACLES provided multi-year airborne observations over the complete vertical column of the key parameters that drive aerosol-cloud interactions in the southeast Atlantic, an area with some of the largest inter-model differences in aerosol forcing assessments. These inter-model differences in aerosol and cloud distributions, as well as their combined climatic effects in the SE Atlantic are partly due to the persistence of aerosols above clouds. The varying separation of cloud and aerosol layers sampled during ORACLES allow for a process-oriented understanding of how variations in radiative heating profiles impact cloud properties, which is expected to improve model simulations for other remote regions experience long-range aerosol transport above clouds. ORACLES uses two NASA aircraft, the P-3 and ER-2. The P-3 was used as a low-flying platform for simultaneous in situ and remote sensing measurements of aerosols and clouds in all three campaigns, supplemented by ER-2 remote sensing in 2016. ER-2 observations will be used to enhance satellite-based remote sensing by resolving variability within a particular scene, and by guiding the development of new and improved remote sensing techniques.

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 September 18, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 18, 2025
Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
Maintainer
Identifier 10.5067/ASDC_DAAC/ORACLES_Model_Data_1
Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
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 d83be06c-97fd-43fa-8d29-f944f66fed2e
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://espo.nasa.gov/oracles
Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":-77,"Longitude":-77},{"Latitude":-77,"Longitude":39},{"Latitude":39,"Longitude":39},{"Latitude":39,"Longitude":-77},{"Latitude":-77,"Longitude":-77}}}, Maximum Altitude, 99999999.9 Meters
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a63114472ab7a34e2b6382a7d26e6c4ee4a0ec477f7fe224985a8b874216123d
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2016-08-27/2016-08-27

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