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    • Pre-LBA ABLE-2A and ABLE-2B Expedition Data

    Metadata Updated: December 6, 2023

    The ABLE 2A and 2B (Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiments) data consists of estimates of the rate of exchange of a wide variety of aerosols and gases between the Amazon Basin and its atmospheric boundary layer, and the processes by which these aerosols and gases are moved between the boundary layer and the free troposphere. The data are presented in gzipped ASCII text files in Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) format.The ABLE-2 project consisted of two expeditions: the first in the Amazonian dry season (ABLE-2A, July-August 1985); and the second in the wet season (ABLE-2B, April-May 1987). The ABLE-2 core research data were gathered by NASA Electra aircraft flights that stretched from Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, west to Tabatinga, on the Brazil-Colombia border, from a base at Manaus in the heart of the forest. See Figure 1. These observations were supplemented by ground based chemical and meteorological measurements in the dry forest, the Amazon floodplain, and the tributary rivers through use of enclosures, an instrumented tower in the jungle, a large tethered balloon, and weather and ozone sondes.This study showed air above the Amazon jungle to be extremely clean during the wet season but air quality deteriorated dramatically during the dry season as the result of biomass burning, performed mostly at the edges of the forest. Biomass burning is also a source of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, as well as other pollutants (carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen). Amazonian ozone deposition rates were found to be 5 to 50 times higher than those previously measured over pine forests and water surfaces. The Amazon River floodplain is a globally significant source of methane, supplying about 12% of the estimated worldwide total from all wetlands sources. Over Amazonia, carbon monoxide is enhanced by factors ranging from 1.2 to 2.7 by comparison with adjacent regions due to isoprene oxidation and biomass burning. Over the rainforest individual convective storms transport 200 megatons of air per hour, of which 3 megatons is water vapor that releases 100,000 megawatts of energy into the atmosphere through condensation into rain.The ABLE was a collaboration of U.S. and Brazilian scientists sponsored by NASA and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) and supported by the Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) component of the NASA Tropospheric Chemistry Program.

    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.

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    Dates

    Metadata Created Date October 11, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

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    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date October 11, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date December 6, 2023
    Publisher ORNL_DAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier C2777402194-ORNL_CLOUD
    Data First Published 2023-10-03
    Language en-US
    Data Last Modified 2023-10-04
    Category LBA-ECO, geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Metadata Catalog ID https://data.nasa.gov/data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Citation Harriss, R.C. 2008. Pre-LBA ABLE-2A and ABLE-2B Expedition Data. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. http://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/897
    Graphic Preview Description Browse Image
    Graphic Preview File https://daac.ornl.gov/graphics/browse/project/square/lba_logo_square.png
    Harvest Object Id ff8f0ee8-da53-4f9f-8865-9318ad431de3
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/897
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial -70.0 -10.0 -50.0 0.0
    Program Code 026:001
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 969b2f3a1b2f69984b136d436e113e21f1189d917a79e4c29b50b5c07dfa358e
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 1985-07-11T00:00:00Z/1987-05-13T23:59:59Z

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