AIRBORNE ANTARCTIC OZONE EXPERIMENT

AAOE April 26, 1989

Introduction

This CDROM contains data pertaining to the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment (AAOE) which was based in Punta Arenas, Chile during August and September 1987. The data is primarily that collected onboard the NASA ER-2 and DC-8 aircraft, along with ozonesonde data collected at four Antarctic stations--Halley Bay, McMurdo, Palmer Station, and the South Pole.

All files within this release are standard ASCII files with variable length records. The file naming convention uses a two character prefix to identify the instrument followed by a six digit number giving the year, month, and day (GMT) of the flight (or balloon launch). A three character extension of ER2, DC8, or OZn is used to denote the data is from the ER-2, DC-8, or ozonesonde (OZ1 for the first launch, OZ2 for the second launch on a particular day).

Directories

• The DOCUMENT directory contains several files documenting the contents of this release.
• CATALOG.DOC contains a list of the principal investigators, their instruments, measurements, and their addresses. Tables showing the available aircraft data and appropriate file name prefix's are also given.
• HALLEY.DOC contains additional information about the ozonesondes launched at Halley Bay, Antarctica.
• FORMAT.DOC gives the format specifications which all experimenters were encouraged to use when writing time series data files for data exchange. The standard format includes header information which describes the data, and the data in the form of time series. Some of the measurements (ie. balloon and lidar soundings, and those with nonuniform sampling intervals) are not easily cast as time series with constant sampling intervals so some of the data files have unique formats. But most of the ER-2 data files and some of the DC-8 files follow this standard format (with the exception that we have changed the file name extensions from A1 to ER2 or DC8). At least, this document may serve as a guide for reading the data files.
• SOFTWARE.DOC contains documentation on Fortran subroutines included in the SOFTWARE directory which can be used to read those files which are in the standard format described in FORMAT.DOC.

• 2.2 The SOFTWARE directory contains several Fortran subroutines which can be used to read those data files which are in the standard format described in FORMAT.DOC.



• 2.3 The DATA directory has three subdirectories for the ER-2, DC-8, and ozonesonde data files. In general, each file contains data for only one flight so the aircraft data is organized by flight date. However, files for the ER-2 Multi Filter Sampler and the DC-8 Fourier Transform Spectrometer and Mark IV Interferometer contain data for all flights in a single file. These exceptions have been placed in MISC subdirectories. The ozonesonde data has been organized by launch site.

3. References


• Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment, 1987. AAOE Project Office, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-5, Moffett Field, CA 94035, U.S.A. An overview of the 1987 AAOE.
• Ardanuy, P., J. Victorine, F. Sechrist, A. Feiner, L. Penn, and the RDS Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment Team, 1988: Final Report on the Near-Real- Time TOMS, Telecommunications, and Meteorological Support for the 1987 Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment. NASA Contractor Report 4133.
• Gardiner, B.G., J.C. Farmen, 1988: Results of the 1987 Ozonesonde Programme at Halley Bay, Antarctica. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, U.K. This document contains tabulations of the Halley Bay soundings, along with vertical profile plots of ozone partial pressure, ozone mixing ratio, potential temperature, and temperature from each ozonesonde.
• Krueger, A.J., P. Ardanuy, F. Sechrist, L. Penn, D. Larko, S. Doiron, R. Galimore, 1988: The 1987 Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment--The Nimbus-7 TOMS Data Atlas. NASA Reference Publication 1201.

We have left the quality control of the data to the principal investigators and have only checked the data files for readability. Therefore, if problems with the data are encountered please inform either us or the appropriate principal investigator.