LASE_CAMEX3 data are Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment water vapor and aerosol data measurements taken during the 3rd Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX3).LASE (Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment) is an airborne autonomous DIAL system developed to measure water vapor and aerosol profiles. The Convection And Moisture EXperiment (CAMEX-3) campaign was based at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida from 6 August - 23 September, 1998. CAMEX-3 successfully studied Hurricanes Bonnie, Danielle, Earl and Georges. CAMEX-3 collected data for research in tropical cyclone development, tracking, intensification, and landfalling impacts using NASA-funded aircraft and surface remote sensing instrumentation.The CAMEX-3 study yields high spatial and temporal information of hurricane structure, dynamics, and motion. The LASE instrument's purpose in this experiment is to characterize the hurricane environment using water vapor and aerosol measurements for use as input to models and assimilation schemes and to fill in sonde data voids.

LASE_AFWEX data are Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment water vapor and aerosol data measurements taken during ARM-FIRE (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement - First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) Regional Experiment Water Vapor Experiment (AFWEX) Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) is an airborne autonomous DIfferential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system developed to measure water vapor, aerosol, and cloud profiles. These measurements can be used in various atmospheric investigations, including studies of air mass modification, latent heat flux, the water vapor component of the hydrologic cycle, and atmospheric transport using water vapor as a tracer of atmospheric motions. The simultaneous measurement of aerosol and cloud distributions can provide important information on atmospheric structure and transport, and many meteorological parameters can also be inferred from these data.The LASE ARM-FIRE Water Vapor Experiment (AFWEX) field experiment was conducted from November 27 - December 15, 2000 at the ARM Southern Great Plains Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) Site site in Lamont, Oklahoma. The goals of the mission were to characterize and improve the accuracy of water vapor measurements under a wide variety of conditions. LASE airborne lidar produces measurements of aerosols and water vapor vertical profiles from the aircraft altitude (6-8 km) down to the surface. AFWEX consisted of both airborne and ground-based instruments. The main result of AFWEX was to demonstrate that, with careful analysis, a core group of 5 instruments was accurate at the 5% level for the profile of water vapor.

The CAMEX-4 LIDAR Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) dataset was collected by the LASE instrument, which is an airborne DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) system used to measure water vapor, aerosols, and clouds throughout the troposphere. LASE operates by locking to a strong water vapor line and electronically tuning to any spectral position on the absorption line to choose the suitable absorption cross-section for optimum measurements over a range of water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere. During CAMEX-4, LASE operated from the NASA DC-8 using strong and weak water vapor lines in both the nadir and zenith modes, thereby simultaneously acquiring data below and above the aircraft.

The GRIP Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) dataset was collected by NASA's Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) system, which is an airborne Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system used to measure water vapor, aerosols, and clouds throughout the troposphere. LASE is onboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft and probes the atmosphere using lasers to transmit light in the 815-nm absorption band of water vapor. Pulses of laser light are fired vertically below the aircraft. A small fraction of the transmitted laser light is reflected from the atmosphere back to the aircraft and collected with a telescope receiver. The received light indicates the amount of water vapor along the path of the laser beam. LASE operated in the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment with data spanning between August 13, 2010 through September 25, 2010. The major goal was to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. NASA used the DC-8 aircraft, the WB-57 aircraft and the Global Hawk Unmanned Airborne System (UAS), configured with a suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments that were used to observe and characterize the lifecycle of hurricanes.

The LASE Southern Great Plains (SGP97) field experiment was conducted in Oklahoma during June-July 1997. SGP97 was a NASA EOS Interdisciplinary Science Investigation to validate soil moisture retrieval algorithms at satellite temporal and spatial scales using remote sensing moisture measurements from aircraft and in situ soil measurements. One of the major objectives of SGP97 was the study of the impact of soil moisture on the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) development. To aid convective boundary layer (CBL) studies, LASE was deployed on the NASA P-3B aircraft along with other instruments. LASE (Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment) airborne lidar produces measurements of aerosols and water vapor vertical profiles from the aircraft altitude (6-8 km) down to the surface. Such profiles show the vertical context in which the SGP97 in situ and radiometric measurements are made, thus supporting the vertical extension of the in situ measurements and detecting any unsampled layers or inhomogeneities, which would impact the surface and airborne measurements.

PEM-Tropics-B_AircraftRemoteSensing_DC8_LASE_Data is the remotely sensed Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) data collected onboard the DC-8 aircraft during the Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM) Tropics B suborbital campaign. Data collection for this product is complete.From 1983-2001, NASA conducted a collection of field campaigns as part of the Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE). Among those was PEM, which intended to improve the scientific understanding of human influence on tropospheric chemistry. Part of the PEM field campaigns were focused on the tropical Pacific region (PEM-Tropics) which was recognized as a “very large chemical vessel.” The overarching science objective was to assess the anthropogenic impact on tropospheric oxidizing power. A secondary objective was to investigate the impact of atmospheric sulfur chemistry, including oxidation of marine biogenic emission of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) on aerosol loading and radiative effect, which is of critical importance in the assessment of global climate change. The PEM-Tropics mission was conducted in two phases to contrast the influence of biomass burning in the dry season and the “relatively clean” wet season. The first, PEM-Tropics A, was carried out during the end of the dry season (August-September 1996), and the second, PEM-Topics B, was conducted during the wet season (March-April 1999). To accomplish its objectives, PEM-Tropics enlisted the NASA DC-8 and P-3B aircrafts to carry out longitudinal and latitudinal surveys at various altitudes as well as vertical profile sampling across the Pacific basin. Both aircrafts were equipped with in-situ instruments measuring hydroperoxyl radicals (HOx), ozone (O3), photochemical precursors (including, reactive nitrogen species and non-methane hydrocarbon species), and intermediate products (e.g., hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), formaldehyde (CH2O), and acetic acid (CH3OOH). The P3-B in-situ instrument payload also included a direct measurement of hydroxyl (OH) for both missions, while the OH and hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) measurements were added to DC-8 aircraft for PEM-Tropics B. Taking advantage of its excellent low altitude capability, the P-3B was instrumented with a comprehensive sulfur measurement package and conducted pseudo-Lagragian sampling for evaluating DMS oxidation chemistry, including measurements of DMS, sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and methylsulfonic acid (MSA) as well as the first airborne measurement of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) during PEM-Tropics B. More importantly, it was the first time that DMS (the source), OH and O3 (primary oxidants), and products (DMSO, MSA, H2SO4, SO2) were measured simultaneously aboard an aircraft in the tropical pacific. These observations, specifically DMSO, presented a substantial challenge to the DMS oxidation kinetics to this day. The DC-8 aircraft was equipped with the Differential Absoprtion Lidar (DIAL) during PEM-Tropics A, and the differential absorption lidars DIAL and LASE during PEM-Tropics B. These lidars provided real-time information for fine tuning the flight tracks to capture sampling opportunities. The lidar data products themselves provide valuable information of vertical profiles of ozone as well as aerosol and water vapor in tropical Pacific Furthermore, both aircrafts were fitted with instruments for aerosol composition and microphysical property measurements. Detailed description related to the motivation, implementation, and instrument payloads are available in the PEM-Tropics A overview paper and the PEM-Tropics B overview paper. Most of the publications based on PEM-Tropics A and B observations are available in the Journal of Geophysical Research special issues: Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics A and NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment Pacific Exploratory Mission in the Tropics Phase B: Measurement and Analyses (PEM-Tropics B), while other publications such as Nowak et al. (2001) were published prior to the special issues.