TRACER-AQ Pandora Column Observations

The observing system includes airborne remote sensing, mobile (boat/vehicle) laboratories, and stationary ground-based assets. The airborne component was based on the NASA Gulfstream V aircraft instrumented with GCAS (GEOCAPE Airborne Simulator) for making measurements of column NO2 and HCHO as well as a lidar system, HSRL-2 (High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2), to measure O3 and aerosol vertical profiles over the course of 12 flight days.

Ground-based assets include ground-based ozone lidars from the Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet), ceilometers, Pandora spectrometers, AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) remote sensors, ozonesondes, and stationary and mobile laboratories of in situ air quality and meteorological observations. This coordinated observing system provides updated or unseen perspectives in spatial and temporal distribution of the key photochemical species and atmospheric structure information, particularly with a focus on the temporal evolution of observations throughout the daytime in preparation for upcoming geostationary satellite air quality observations.