Aeolus CalVal Meteorological and Navigational

Aeolus-CalVal-MetNav_DC8_1 is the Aeolus CalVal Meteorological and Navigational data product. Data was collected using the Global Positioning System (GPS) instrument on the Douglas (DC-8) Aircraft. Data collection for this product is complete. NASA conducted an airborne campaign from 17 April to 30 April 2019 to: 1) demonstrate the performance of the Doppler Aerosol WiNd Lidar (DAWN) and High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) instruments across a range of aerosol, cloud, and weather conditions; 2) compare these measurements with the European Space Agency Aeolus mission to gain an initial perspective of Aeolus performance in preparation for a future international Aeolus Cal/Val airborne campaign; and 3) demonstrate how weather processes can be resolved and better understood through simultaneous airborne wind, water vapor (WV), and aerosol profile observations, coupled with numerical model and other remote sensing observations. Five NASA DC-8 aircraft flights, comprising 46 flight hours, were conducted over the Eastern Pacific and Southwest U.S., based out of NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA and Kona, HI. Yankee Environmental Systems, Inc High Definition Sounding System (HDSS) eXpendable Digitial Dropsondes (XDD) were used to validate the DAWN and Aeolus wind observations. The LaRC Diode Laser Hygrometer instrument, which was integrated on the DC-8 in preparation for another NASA airborne campaign, provided in-situ WV measurements used during one flight to validate HALO and dropsonde WV profile products.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated May 18, 2026, 16:43 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 14:12 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id e3873757-c34c-44d6-a4af-f64cad133ee7
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/Airborne/Aeolus-CalVal-MetNav_DC8_1
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-05-14T22:12:37Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 3fb0990742bf63b5ee2e94c55c627786802adf4d04a9abed46d6bd7d36530294
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN",[{"Boundary":{"Points":[{"Latitude":5,"Longitude":-159},{"Latitude":5,"Longitude":-113},{"Latitude":52,"Longitude":-113},{"Latitude":52,"Longitude":-159},{"Latitude":5,"Longitude":-159}]}}]], Maximum Altitude, 12.75 km
temporal 2019-04-17/2019-04-30
theme {"Earth Science"}