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DOCUMENTATION

Documentation

Guide Documents

Dataset PI Documents

Dataset Software

NAMMA Carbon monOxide By Attenuated Laser Transmission (COBALT)

Table of Contents

Introduction
Campaign
Instrument Description
File Naming Convention
Data Format
References
Contact Information

Introduction

COBALT (Carbon mOnoxide By Attenuation of Laser Transmission), an autonomous instrument based on off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy, has been developed and successfully deployed for measurements of carbon monoxide in the troposphere and tropopause onboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft. This instrument was used to measure in-situ carbon monoxide mixing ratios, and to derive mixing ratio profiles. Tunable-laser absorption spectroscopy is an established analytical technique that is being used to obtain accurate in-situ CO concentrations.

Campaign

These data files were generated during support of the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) campaign, a field research investigation sponsored by the Science Mission Directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This mission was based in the Cape Verde Islands, 350 miles off the coast of Senegal in west Africa. Commencing in August 2006, NASA scientists employed surface observation networks and aircraft to characterize the evolution and structure of African Easterly Waves (AEWs) and Mesoscale Convective Systems over continental western Africa, and their associated impacts on regional water and energy budgets. For more information about the NAMMA Campaign, go to the NAMMA web site: http://namma.nsstc.nasa.gov/

Instrument Description

The COBALT instrument consists of a measurement cell comprised of two high-reflectivity mirrors, a continuous-wave quantum-cascade laser, gas sampling system, control and data-acquisition electronics, and data-analysis software. CO measurements were determined from high-resolution CO absorption line shapes obtained by tuning the laser wavelength over the R(7) transition of the fundamental vibration band near 2172.8 cm-1. The instrument reports CO mixing ratio (mole fraction) at a 1-Hz rate based on measured absorption, gas temperature, and pressure using Beer's Law. Previous flights have shown the instrument to record CO values with a precision of 0.2 ppbv (1-s averaging time) and an accuracy limited by the reference CO gas cylinder (uncertainty <1.0%).

File Naming Convention

The COBALT data files are named following the example below:

NAMMA_COBALT_yyyyddmm_rx.txt

where,

NAMMA = the campaign name
COBALT = the dataset name - Carbon mOnoxide By Attenuation of Laser Transmission (COBALT)
yyyymmdd = the year, month and day of the data
rx = the data revision number
txt = indicates that these are tab delimited text files, using "1001" Gaines-Hipskind format

Data Format

The COBALT data files follow the "1001" Gaines-Hipskind format as described in the document entitled - "ASCII File Format Specification for Data Exchange" found at: http://espoarchive.nasa.gov/archive/docs/formatspec_2_0.pdf. These carbon monoxide mixing ratio data files contain informative headers that explain the dataset.  Column 1 is the time, in seconds UTC, and column 2 is CO Volumetric Mixing Ratio in ppbv (wet air). An example data file is listed below:

34 1001 ; Gaines-Hipskind format [http://espoarchive.nasa.gov/archive/docs/formatspec_2_0.pdf]
Podolske, James R.
NASA Ames Research Center
Carbon monOxide By Attenuated Laser Transmission (COBALT); Carbon Monoxide Mixing Ratio from NASA DC-8
NASA NAMMA MISSION 2006
1 1
2006 09 12 2006 09 13 ;flight-date analysis-date
1
Start_UTC
1
1
-999.00
CO_ppbv
1
These data are FINAL
18
PI_CONTACT_INFO: NASA ARC, MS 245-5, Moffett Field, CA 94035; e-mail: james.r.podolske@nasa.gov;
PLATFORM: NASA/UND DC-8 Aircraft
LOCATION: DC-8 location data in file NAMMA_ICATS_20060912_1Hz.bin
ASSOCIATED_DATA: NAMMA_ICATS_20060912_1Hz.bin
INSTRUMENT_INFO: COBALT off-axis ICOS Quantum Cascade laser spectrometer for in-situ CO
DATA_INFO: CO Volumetric Mixing Ratio in ppbv (wet air)
UNCERTAINTY: CO(v) = 3% (est'd)
ULOD_FLAG: -7777.00
ULOD_VALUE: 10000;
LLOD_FLAG: -8888.00
LLOD_VALUE: 1;
DM_CONTACT_INFO: james.r.podolske@nasa.gov
PROJECT_INFO: N/A
STIPULATIONS_ON_USE: PI is interested in knowing intended usage of this dataset
OTHER_COMMENTS: Data in this file are 1 sec
REVISION: R1
R0: No comments for this revision.
UT_Sec     CO_ppbv
42840.0     95.91
42841.0     95.62
42842.0     95.54
42843.0     95.64
42844.0     95.32
42845.0     95.54
42846.0     95.48
42847.0     95.18
42848.0     95.93

References

R. Provencal, M. Gupta, T. G. Owano, D. S. Baer, K. N. Ricci, A. O"Keefe, and J. R. Podolske, "Cavity-enhanced quantum-cascade laser-based instrument for carbon monoxide measurements", Appl.Opt. 44, 6712-6717 (2005).

Contact Information

The data producer is:

James R. Podolske
NASA Ames Research Center
MS 245-5, Moffett Field, CA 94035
james.r.podolske@nasa.gov

To order these data or for further information, please contact:

Global Hydrology Resource Center
User Services
320 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35805
Phone: 256-961-7932
E-mail: support-ghrc@earthdata.nasa.gov
Web: http://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/

 

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