Weather and flight-path data from Arctic research plane (ARCSIX P-3B)
What it measures. Logs the weather conditions and exact flight path of a research aircraft over the Arctic — things like humidity from an onboard laser hygrometer plus position and navigation from the flight management system.
How it's made. Collected directly by instruments mounted on NASA's P-3B research plane during the 2024 ARCSIX Arctic field campaign based in Greenland.
How & where you'd use it. Provides the meteorological and location context that ties together the plane's other measurements of clouds, aerosols and radiation, supporting studies of Arctic sea-ice melt.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2024-05-17 → 2024-08-18
- Measured byP-3B (DLH, UNS-1Fw)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-105.18, 37.68, -8.31, 86.06
- FormatsICARTT, KML
- StatusCOMPLETE
What you can do with it
- Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
- Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
- Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description
ARCSIX_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_P3B_Data is the in-situ meteorology and navigation data collected onboard the P-3B aircraft during the Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction EXperiment (ARCSIX) campaign. Data from the Diode Laser Hygrometer (DLH) and the UNS-1Fw Flight Management System are featured in this collection. Data collection for this product is complete. The ARCSIX campaign is a NASA field investigation aimed at quantifying the contributions of surface properties, clouds, aerosol particles, and precipitation to the Arctic summer surface radiation budget and sea ice melt during the early melt season. Based out of Greenland, ARCSIX completed two deployments from May – June 2024 and July - August 2024 utilizing the NASA P-3B, LaRC G-III, and SPEC-Learjet aircraft. The P-3B was equipped with in situ and remote sensing payloads to acquire measurements of aerosols, cloud, and radiation properties. The high-flying LaRC G-III was equipped with remote sensing instrumentation, including the HALO, and HSRL, along with the AVAPS dropsonde system. The SPEC-Learjet acquired measurements of cloud microphysics. Data were also collected at the Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO) in Pituffik, Greenland. The primary objective of ARCSIX was to enhance long-term space-based monitoring and predictive capabilities of Arctic sea ice, cloud, and aerosols by validating and improving remote sensing algorithms and model parameterizations in the Arctic. ARCSIX science questions focused on examining the impact of the predominant summer Arctic cloud types on the radiative surface energy budget, what processes control the evolution and maintenance of the predominant cloud types in the summertime Arctic, and how do the two-way interactions between surface properties and atmospheric forcings affect sea ice evolution?
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="ARCSIX_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_P3B_Data",
version="1",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from LARC_CLOUDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- ARCSIX White Paper VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- NASA Mission Flies Over Arctic to Study Sea Ice Melt Causes VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- How to Cite ASDC Data VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Earthdata Search for ARCSIX_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_P3B_Data_1 (NASA Application to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data) GET DATA
- CMR Virtual Directory for ARCSIX_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_P3B_Data GET DATA