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ORACLES Radiation Aircraft InSitu Data

Metadata Updated: September 18, 2025

ORACLES_Radiation_AircraftInSitu_Data are in situ radiation measurements collected onboard the P-3 Orion or ER-2 aircraft during the ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) campaign. These measurements were collected from August 19, 2016 – October 27, 2016, August 1, 2017 – September 4, 2017 and September 21, 2018 – October 27, 2018. ORACLES provides multi-year airborne observations over the complete vertical column of 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 on the planet. The P-3 Orion aircraft was utilized as a low-flying platform for simultaneous in situ and remote sensing measurements of aerosols and clouds and was supplemented by ER-2 remote sensing during the 2016 campaign.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 utilized 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_Radiation_AircraftInSitu_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 e87482e1-ec1a-4914-8bc9-d89a72c76f55
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":40},{"Latitude":40,"Longitude":40},{"Latitude":40,"Longitude":-77},{"Latitude":-77,"Longitude":-77}}}, Maximum Altitude, 99999.9 Meters
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 5bc27c69adc15cfaf9272704f2abcb14c9d44ea1b8db1dab60d7e8150a8e0952
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial
Temporal 2016-08-30/2016-08-30

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