ABoVE/ASCENDS: Atmospheric Backscattering Coefficient Profiles from CO2 Sounder, 2017

This dataset provides atmospheric backscattering coefficient profiles collected during Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) deployments from 2017-07-20 to 2017-08-08 over Alaska, U.S., and the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada. These profiles were measured by the CO2 Sounder Lidar instrument carried on a DC-8 aircraft. The airborne CO2 Sounder is a pulsed, multi-wavelength Integrated Path Differential Absorption lidar that estimates column-averaged dry-air CO2 mixing ratio (XCO2) in the nadir path from the aircraft to the scattering surface. In addition to XCO2, the lidar receiver recorded the time-resolved atmospheric backscatter signal strength as the laser pulses propagated through the atmosphere. Raw lidar data were converted to the atmospheric backscatter cross-section product and the two-way atmosphere transmission, also known as attenuated backscatter profiles. These ASCENDS flights were coordinated with the 2017 Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) campaign and are provided in ICARTT format.