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Description
PACE-PAX_LiNeph_AircraftInSitu_CIRPAS-TO_Data is the Laser Imaging Nephelometer (LI Neph) data collected onboard the Twin Otter aircraft flying the CIRPAS suite of instruments during the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) campaign. Data collection for this product is complete.
The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) was a field campaign to gather data to support PACE mission validation. A secondary objective was help validate data from JAXA/ESA's Earth Cloud, Aerosol, and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission.
PACE-PAX was conducted in September 2024 in Southern and Central California and nearby coastal regions. The team flew 81 hours on the NASA ER-2 operating out of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center and 60 flight hours on the CIRPAS Twin Otter from Marina Municipal Airport. A NOAA vessel, the R/V Shearwater, operated 16 day trips out of Santa Barbara, while a privately owned sailboat, the R/V Blissfully, conducted nine sorties out of Long Beach. Numerous other entities — many of which were members of the PACE Validation Science Team (PVST) — cooperated to make coincident observations.
Ocean data are archived at the SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS), DOI: 10.5067/SeaBASS/PACE-PAX/DATA001
The PACE-PAX mission website contains additional campaign documentation.
For more meteorology resources supporting PACE-PAX, please visit NASA Ames Airborne Science Meteorological Support for PACE-PAX. All resources are linked as Related URLs.
Atmospheric Science Data Center, Science Directorate, Langley Research Center, NASA (NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC)
Concept ID
C3525270030-LARC_CLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
17
Processing Level
2
Published
Science Keywords
Scattering
Citation
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.
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Citation Copied
Ahern, A. (2025). PACE-PAX CIRPAS Twin Otter Laser Imaging Nephelometer (LI Neph) Data [Dataset]. NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC/SUBORBITAL/PACE-PAX/CIRPAS-TO/LINEPH_AIRCRAFTINSITU_1 Date Accessed: 2026-09-17
@misc{ahern_2025,
title={PACE-PAX CIRPAS Twin Otter Laser Imaging Nephelometer (LI Neph) Data},
url={https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/data/catalog/larc-cloud-pace-pax-lineph-aircraftinsitu-cirpas-to-data-1},
DOI={10.5067/ASDC/SUBORBITAL/PACE-PAX/CIRPAS-TO/LINEPH_AIRCRAFTINSITU_1},
publisher={NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center},
author={Ahern, Adam},
year={2025},
}
Ahern, A. (2025). PACE-PAX CIRPAS Twin Otter Laser Imaging Nephelometer (LI Neph) Data [Dataset]. NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC/SUBORBITAL/PACE-PAX/CIRPAS-TO/LINEPH_AIRCRAFTINSITU_1 Date Accessed: 2026-09-17
Ahern, Adam. “PACE-PAX CIRPAS Twin Otter Laser Imaging Nephelometer (LI Neph) Data.” NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, 2025, https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC/SUBORBITAL/PACE-PAX/CIRPAS-TO/LINEPH_AIRCRAFTINSITU_1. Date Accessed: 2026-09-17
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