Open AccessConstruction of a unified, high‐resolution nitrous oxide data set for ER‐2 flights during SOLVE
Author(s) -
Hurst, Dale F.,
Schauffler, Sue M.,
Greenblatt, Jeffery B.,
Jost, Hansjürg,
Herman, Robert L.,
Elkins, James W.,
Romashkin, Pavel A.,
Atlas, Elliot L.,
Donnelly, Stephen G.,
Podolske, James R.,
Loewenstein, Max,
Webster, Christopher R.,
Flesch, Gregory J.,
Scott David C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2001jd000417
Subject(s) - data set , data reduction , nitrous oxide , set (abstract data type) , computer science , high resolution , payload (computing) , remote sensing , data mining , environmental science , algorithm , statistics , mathematics , geology , chemistry , organic chemistry , programming language , computer network , network packet
Four nitrous oxide (N 2 O) instruments were part of the NASA ER‐2 aircraft payload during the 2000 SAGE‐III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). Coincident data from the three in situ instruments and a whole air sampler are compared. Agreement between these instruments was typically good; however, there are several types of important differences between the data sets. These differences prompted a collaborative effort to combine data from the three in situ instruments, using an objective method, to produce a self‐consistent, high‐resolution, unified N 2 O data set for each SOLVE flight. The construction method developed by the four N 2 O instrument teams is described in detail. An important step in this method is the evaluation and reduction of bias in each of the in situ data sets before they are combined. The quality of unified N 2 O data is examined through its agreement with high‐accuracy and high‐precision N 2 O data from whole air samples collected from the ER‐2 during SOLVE flights. Typical agreement between these two data sets is 2.9 ppb (1.5%), better than the typical agreement between any pair of N 2 O instruments.