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Full catalog/ATom_merge_V2_1925
ATom_merge_V2_1925·v2.0·dataset

Gases and tiny particles sampled across the air (ATom)

ATom: Merged Atmospheric Chemistry, Trace Gases, and Aerosols, Version 2
land NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Concentrations of greenhouse gases and air pollution sampled directly in the air, including carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and black-carbon soot. It merges readings from many instruments into one combined record.

How it's made. Collected during NASA's ATom flights on a DC-8 aircraft that sampled the atmosphere; data from all instruments are merged and averaged to several consistent time intervals.

How & where you'd use it. Used to improve how computer models represent reactive gases and short-lived climate-warming particles, sharpening climate and air-chemistry predictions.

What's measured

HUMAN DIMENSIONS › ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS › BIOMASS BURNINGATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › HALOCARBONS AND HALOGENSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIESATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › SULFUR COMPOUNDSATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITYATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC CARBON MONOXIDEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › OXYGEN COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC OZONEATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › NON-METHANE HYDROCARBONS/VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDSHUMAN DIMENSIONS › ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS › FOSSIL FUEL BURNINGHUMAN DIMENSIONS › ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS › INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONSATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDEATMOSPHERE › AEROSOLS › CARBONACEOUS AEROSOLS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2016-07-29 → 2018-05-21
  • Measured byNASA DC-8 (FLUORESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY, GAS CHROMATOGRAPHS, ION CHROMATOGRAPHS, UCATS-GC, TOGA, DMT SP2, PALMS, PICARRO G2401-mc CO2, CH4, CO, H2O INSTRUMENT, MMS, WAS, AMS, CIMS, DLH, CAPS, CAFS, ATHOS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -86.1769, 180, 82.9406
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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

This dataset provides information on greenhouse gases and human-produced air pollution, including atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), tropospheric ozone (O3), and black carbon (BC) aerosols, collected during airborne campaigns conducted by NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission. This dataset includes merged data from all instruments plus additional data such as numbered profiles and distance flown. Merged data products have been created for seven different aggregation intervals (1 second, 10 seconds, and 5 instrument-specific intervals). In the case of data obtained over longer time intervals (e.g., flask data), the merge files provide (weighted) averages to match the sampling intervals. This comprehensive dataset will be used to improve the representation of chemically reactive gases and short-lived climate forcers in global models of atmospheric chemistry and climate.

Get the data

atom_merge_v2_1925_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ATom_merge_V2_1925",
    version="2.0",
    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 ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.