Sept. 9, 2024, 11:44 a.m.

Project: TRACE-A

The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) has released data for the Transport and Atmospheric Chemistry near the Equator (TRACE) campaign. TRACE is a part of the Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) and was composed of two missions: TRACE-Atlantic (TRACE-A) and TRACE-Pacific (TRACE-P). TRACE-A took place from September to October 1992 with flights extending from Brazil to south Africa, while TRACE-P took place from February to April 2001 with flights over the northwestern Pacific. The two objectives of TRACE-A were 1) to study the photochemical and meteorological features contribution to enhanced ozone concentrations observed over the tropical Atlantic Ocean and 2) to characterize and quantify the source and transport of primary and secondary ozone precursors associated with biomass burning in South America and southern Africa. The goals of TRACE-P were 1) to characterize the Asian outflow in terms of chemical composition over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, including quantifying the sources/emissions and 2) to characterize the chemical evolution of the outflow, i.e., how the chemicals change as the airmass moves away from the continent, and assess the major factors influencing evolution. Both campaigns utilized the NASA DC-8 aircraft to collect measurements, while TRACE-P specifically utilized the DC-8 and P-3B aircrafts. A more detailed explanation of both campaigns and their datasets can be found on the TRACE-A and TRACE-P Landing Pages linked below.

Data Access

ASDC TRACE-A Landing Page
TRACE-A Earthdata Search
TRACE-A Direct Data Download
ASDC TRACE-P Landing Page
TRACE-P Earthdata Search
TRACE-P Direct Data Download