LISTOS NASA Aircraft Meteorological and Navigational Data

LISTOS_MetNav_AircraftInSitu_NASAAircraft_Data is the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study (LISTOS) in-situ meteorological and navigational data collected onboard the NASA aircraft during the LISTOS field campaign. This product is a result of a joint effort across multiple agencies, including NASA, NOAA, the EPA Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), Maine Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and several research groups at universities. Data collection is complete. The New York City (NYC) metropolitan area (comprised of portions of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut in and around NYC) is home to over 20 million people, but also millions of people living downwind in neighboring states. This area continues to persistently have challenges meeting past and recently revised federal health-based air quality standards for ground-level ozone, which impacts the health and well-being of residents living in the area. A unique feature of this chronic ozone problem is the pollution transported in a northeast direction out of NYC over Long Island Sound. The relatively cool waters of Long Island Sound confine the pollutants in a shallow and stable marine boundary layer. Afternoon heating over coastal land creates a sea breeze that carries the air pollution inland from the confined marine layer, resulting in high ozone concentrations in Connecticut and, at times, farther east into Rhode Island and Massachusetts. To investigate the evolving nature of ozone formation and transport in the NYC region and downwind, Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) launched the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study (LISTOS). LISTOS was a multi-agency collaborative study focusing on Long Island Sound and the surrounding coastlines that continually suffer from poor air quality exacerbated by land/water circulation. The primary measurement observations took place between June-September 2018 and include in-situ and remote sensing instrumentation that were integrated aboard three aircraft, a network of ground sites, mobile vehicles, boat measurements, and ozonesondes. The goal of LISTOS was to improve the understanding of ozone chemistry and sea breeze transported pollution over Long Island Sound and its coastlines. LISTOS also provided NASA the opportunity to test air quality remote sensing retrievals with the use of its airborne simulators (GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Airborne Simulator (GCAS), and Geostationary Trace gas and Aerosol Sensory Optimization (GeoTASO)) for the preparation of the Tropospheric Emissions; Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) observations for monitoring air quality from space. LISTOS also helped collaborators in the validation of Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) science products, with use of airborne- and ground-based measurements of ozone, NO2, and HCHO.

Tags: earth-science-atmospheric-pressure-atmosphere, earth-science-atmospheric-winds-atmosphere
Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration