Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment Ozone Data

The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) is a partnership between NASA's Ames Research Center and H211, L.L.C., facilitating routine in-situ measurements over California, Nevada, and the coastal Pacific in support of satellite validation. The standard payload complement includes rigorously-calibrated ozone (O3), formaldehyde (HCHO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) mixing ratios, as well as meteorological data including 3-D winds. Multiple vertical profiles (to ~8.5 km) can be accomplished in each 2-hr flight. The AJAX project has been collecting trace gas data on a regular basis in all seasons for over a decade, helping to assess satellite sensors' health and calibration over significant portions of their lifetimes, and complementing surface and tower-based observations collected elsewhere in the region. AJAX supports NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2/3) and Japan's Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and GOSAT-2, and collaborates with many other research organizations (e.g. California Air Resources Board (CARB), NOAA, United States Forest Service (USFS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)). AJAX celebrated its 200th science flight in 2016, and previous studies have investigated topics as varied as stratospheric-to-tropospheric transport, forest fire plumes, atmospheric river events, long-range transport of pollution from Asia to the western US, urban outflow, and emissions from gas leaks, oil fields, and dairies.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated May 18, 2026, 18:38 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 14:18 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id a5d7b8d3-08ef-49ff-a102-0bdbd2d3d786
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.5067/ASDC/AJAX_O3
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-05-14T22:12:38Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 9cf8b03f6ca74945c75ec9d44442f87a3559bb4c3dcd33f5c74e8c0bbf77a55e
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN",[{"Boundary":{"Points":[{"Latitude":34,"Longitude":-125},{"Latitude":34,"Longitude":-114},{"Latitude":42,"Longitude":-114},{"Latitude":42,"Longitude":-125},{"Latitude":34,"Longitude":-125}]}}]], Maximum Altitude, 8.5 km
temporal 2011-02-01/2018-06-07
theme {"Earth Science"}