ASDC | ACTIVATE Data Release Announcement

ACTIVATE Data Release Announcement

Feb. 1, 2021, 7 a.m.

The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center has published an initial release of the currently available publication quality data for the Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). ACTIVATE is a 5-year field campaign (2019-2023) that investigates the atmospheric impacts of marine boundary layer clouds. Marine boundary layer clouds cover over 45% of the Earth’s ocean surface and exert a net cooling effect; thus, these clouds play a critical role in the Earth’s energy balance and water cycle. ACTIVATE seeks to improve knowledge in atmospheric composition, Earth’s water and energy cycle, climate variability and change, and weather by providing important, globally relevant data about marine boundary layer clouds. The ACTIVATE science team is composed of researchers from NASA, the National Institute of Aerospace, various universities, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Northwest National Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the German Aerospace Center.

ACTIVATE is based out of NASA Langley Research Center and collects data over the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. The primary aircraft used to collect data about aerosol-cloud-meteorology interactions during ACTIVATE are the UC-12 King Air (used for remote sensing measurements), and the HU-25 Falcon (used for in-situ measurements).

The data published includes publication quality data collected during the first and second deployment. More publication quality data from these two campaigns will become available as it is submitted, along with data from the remaining deployments.

More information about ACTIVATE can be found on the ACTIVATE Website.