The NAMMA Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) dataset used the LASE system using the Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system was operated during the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign to gather water vapor mixing ratio and aerosol scattering ratio (815 nm) profiles. Other derived parameters include: relative humidity, equivalent potential temperature, virtual potential temperature, precipitable water vapor profiles, aerosol backscatter, aerosol extinction, and aerosol optical thickness profiles (815 nm). Aerosol data are reported as atmospheric scattering ratios on a logarithmic scale. Water vapor data are reported as mixing ratios (g/kg) on both a linear and logarithmic scale. LASE was operated from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during 14 NAMMA campaign flights between August 15 and September 12, 2006.

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.

LASE_SOLVE is the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) Data Obtained During the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) data product. Data collection for this data set is complete.The LASE SOLVE field experiment was conducted in the Arctic during November 1999 to March 2000 with the scientists based above the Arctic Circle at the airport in Kiruna, Sweden. Measurements of stratospheric composition over the Arctic were made using a large suite of instruments aboard several European aircraft, as well as on NASA's DC-8 and ER-2 aircraft. Additionally, balloons and ground-based instruments also took atmospheric readings and scientists gathered ozone-related data to use in validating measurements by the SAGE III instrument aboard the Russian Meteor-3 satellite. LASE airborne lidar produced measurements of aerosols and water vapor vertical profiles from the aircraft altitude (6-8 km) down to the surface. SOLVE was a measurement campaign designed to examine the processes which control polar to mid-latitude stratospheric ozone levels. The goal of SOLVE was for its results to expand the understanding polar ozone processes to provide greater confidence in ozone monitoring capabilities.

SOLVE1_AircraftRemoteSensing_DC8_LASE_Data is the remotely sensed trace gas data for the DC-8 aircraft collected during the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) by the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) instrument. Data collection for this product is complete.The SOLVE campaign was a NASA multi-program effort of the Upper Atmosphere Research Program (UARP), Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project (AEAP), Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program (ACMAP) and Earth Observing System (EOS) of NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). SOLVE’s primary objective was for calibrating and validating the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III satellite measurements, while examining the processes that controlled ozone levels at a mid- to high-latitude range. The major goal of SAGE III was to quantitatively assess ozone loss at high latitudes. SOLVE was a two-phase experiment, the first phase, SOLVE, occurred during the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2000. The second phase, SOLVE II, occurred during the winter of 2003.SOLVE took place in the Arctic high-latitude region during the winter. The polar ozone depletion processes cause by human-produced chlorine and bromine are most active in mid-to-late winter and early spring in the high Arctic. In order to conduct this validation experiment, NASA deployed the NASA ER-2 aircraft and NASA DC-8 aircraft. The ER-2 measured a variety of atmospheric data, including ozone (O3), H2O, CO2, ClONO2, HCl, ClO/BrO, and Cl2O2. The DC-8 aircraft measured ozone, ClO/BrO, and aerosol, among other atmospheric data. SOLVE also utilized balloon platforms, ground-based instruments, and collaborations with the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) FALCON aircraft equipped with the OLEX Lidar to achieve the mission objectives. Overall, the campaign had 28 flights, with SOLVE featuring 17 total flights among the different aircrafts and SOLVE II featuring 11 flights.

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.

The Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) Tropospheric Aerosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment (TARFOX) data set was collected over the Western Atlantic Ocean in July 1996. The overall goal of TARFOX was to reduce uncertainties in the effects of aerosols on climate by determining the direct radiative impacts, as well as the chemical, physical, and optical properties, of the aerosols carried over the western Atlantic Ocean from the United States. LASE is an airborne autonomous DIAL system which produces measurements of aerosols and water vapor vertical profiles from the aircraft altitude down to the surface. Such profiles show the vertical context in which the TARFOX 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 airborne and satellite radiative flux measurements. Note that the LASE_TARFOX data set is also available under the TARFOX project as the TARFOX_LASE data set. The data files included in these two data sets are identical.

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.