As new technologies are developed to handle the complexities of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), it is increasingly important to address both current and future safety concerns along with the operational, environmental, and efficiency issues within the National Airspace System (NAS). In recent years, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety offices have been researching ways to utilize the many safety databases maintained by the FAA, such as those involving flight recorders, radar tracks, weather, and many other high-volume sensors, in order to monitor this unique and complex system. Although a number of current technologies do monitor the frequency of known safety risks in the NAS, very few methods currently exist that are capable of analyzing large data repositories with the purpose of discovering new and previously unmonitored safety risks. While monitoring the frequency of known events in the NAS enables mitigation of already identified problems, a more proactive approach of finding unidentified issues still needs to be addressed. This is especially important in the proactive identification of new, emergent safety issues that may result from the planned introduction of advanced NextGen air traffic management technologies and procedures. Development of an automated tool that continuously evaluates the NAS to discover both events exhibiting flight characteristics indicative of safety-related concerns as well as operational anomalies will heighten the awareness of such situations in the aviation community and serve to increase the overall safety of the NAS. This paper discusses the extension of previous anomaly detection work to identify operationally significant flights within the highly complex airspace encompassing the New York area of operations, focusing on the major airports of Newark International (EWR), LaGuardia International (LGA), and John F. Kennedy International (JFK). In addition, flight traffic in the vicinity of Denver International (DEN) airport/airspace is also investigated to evaluate the impact on operations due to variances in seasonal weather and airport elevation. From our previous research, subject matter experts determined that some of the identified anomalies were significant, but could not reach conclusive findings without additional supportive data. To advance this research further, causal examination using domain experts is continued along with the integration of air traffic control (ATC) voice data to shed much needed insight into resolving which flight characteristic(s) may be impacting an aircraft's unusual profile. Once a flight characteristic is identified, it could be included in a list of potential safety precursors. This paper also describes a process that has been developed and implemented to automatically identify and produce daily reports on flights of interest from the previous day.

The number of flights performed globally by the airline industry has increased steadily since the early 2000s and reached 38.9 million in 2019. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of flights dropped to 18.3 million in 2020. The flight volume increased again in the following years and was forecasted to reach 38.7 million in 2024. The global airline industry The number of flights performed increased year-on-year continuously to transport both passengers and freight. The industry’s recent growth can be attributed to a combination of increasing living standards and decreasing costs of air travel. While North American and European airlines currently dominate in terms of both revenue and passengers flown, it is predicted that future growth will be highest in markets of Asia.

Daily data showing UK flight numbers and rolling seven-day average, including flights to, from, and within the UK. These are official statistics in development. Source: EUROCONTROL.

In 2023, the estimated number of scheduled passengers boarded by the global airline industry amounted to approximately 4.5 billion people. This represents a significant increase compared to the previous year since the pandemic started and the positive trend was forecast to continue in 2024, with the scheduled passenger volume reaching just below five billion travelers. Airline passenger traffic The number of scheduled passengers handled by the global airline industry has increased in all but one of the last decade. Scheduled passengers refer to the number of passengers who have booked a flight with a commercial airline. Excluded are passengers on charter flights, whereby an entire plane is booked by a private group. In 2023, the Asia Pacific region had the highest share of airline passenger traffic, accounting for one third of the global total.

Motivation

The data in this dataset is derived and cleaned from the full OpenSky dataset to illustrate the development of air traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. It spans all flights seen by the network's more than 2500 members since 1 January 2019. More data has been periodically included in the dataset until the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We stopped updating the dataset after December 2022. Previous files have been fixed after a thorough sanity check.

License

See LICENSE.txt

Disclaimer

The data provided in the files is provided as is. Despite our best efforts at filtering out potential issues, some information could be erroneous.

Origin and destination airports are computed online based on the ADS-B trajectories on approach/takeoff: no crosschecking with external sources of data has been conducted. Fields origin or destination are empty when no airport could be found.

Aircraft information come from the OpenSky aircraft database. Fields typecode and registration are empty when the aircraft is not present in the database.

Description of the dataset

One file per month is provided as a csv file with the following features:

callsign: the identifier of the flight displayed on ATC screens (usually the first three letters are reserved for an airline: AFR for Air France, DLH for Lufthansa, etc.)

number: the commercial number of the flight, when available (the matching with the callsign comes from public open API); this field may not be very reliable;

icao24: the transponder unique identification number;

registration: the aircraft tail number (when available);

typecode: the aircraft model type (when available);

origin: a four letter code for the origin airport of the flight (when available);

destination: a four letter code for the destination airport of the flight (when available);

firstseen: the UTC timestamp of the first message received by the OpenSky Network;

lastseen: the UTC timestamp of the last message received by the OpenSky Network;

day: the UTC day of the last message received by the OpenSky Network;

latitude_1, longitude_1, altitude_1: the first detected position of the aircraft;

latitude_2, longitude_2, altitude_2: the last detected position of the aircraft.

Examples

Possible visualisations and a more detailed description of the data are available at the following page: https://traffic-viz.github.io/gallery/covid19.html

Credit

If you use this dataset, please cite:

Martin Strohmeier, Xavier Olive, Jannis Lübbe, Matthias Schäfer, and Vincent Lenders "Crowdsourced air traffic data from the OpenSky Network 2019–2020" Earth System Science Data 13(2), 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-357-2021

Passengers enplaned and deplaned at Canadian airports, annual.

Context

The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) tracks the on-time performance of domestic flights operated by large air carriers. Summary information on the number of on-time, delayed, canceled and diverted flights appears in DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, published about 30 days after the month's end, as well as in on-time data posted on this website.

Content

A flight is considered delayed if it is late by more than 15 minutes.

Factors considered: Year: The year of the flight (all records are from 2013) Month: The month of the flight DayofMonth: The day of the month on which the flight departed DayOfWeek: The day of the week on which the flight departed - from 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday) Carrier: The two-letter abbreviation for the airline. OriginAirportID: A unique numeric identifier for the departure aiport OriginAirportName: The full name of the departure airport OriginCity: The departure airport city OriginState: The departure airport state DestAirportID: A unique numeric identifier for the destination aiport DestAirportName: The full name of the destination airport DestCity: The destination airport city DestState: The destination airport state CRSDepTime: The scheduled departure time DepDelay: The number of minutes departure was delayed (flight that left ahead of schedule have a negative value) DelDelay15: A binary indicator that departure was delayed by more than 15 minutes (and therefore considered "late") CRSArrTime: The scheduled arrival time ArrDelay: The number of minutes arrival was delayed (flight that arrived ahead of schedule have a negative value) ArrDelay15: A binary indicator that arrival was delayed by more than 15 minutes (and therefore considered "late") Cancelled: A binary indicator that the flight was cancelled

Acknowledgements

The flight delay and cancellation data was collected and published by the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

India All Scheduled Airlines: International: Number of Flight data was reported at 18,574.000 Unit in Jan 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 18,324.000 Unit for Dec 2024. India All Scheduled Airlines: International: Number of Flight data is updated monthly, averaging 7,783.000 Unit from Apr 2001 (Median) to Jan 2025, with 281 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 18,574.000 Unit in Jan 2025 and a record low of 273.000 Unit in May 2020. India All Scheduled Airlines: International: Number of Flight data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Transportation, Post and Telecom Sector – Table IN.TA019: Airline Statistics: All Scheduled Airlines.

This dataset contains the records of all the flights in the Northern California TRACON. The data was provided by the aircraft noise abatement office (http://www.flyquietsfo.com/) of San Francisco International Airport. The data cover Jan-Mar 2006. It is organized by day and flight. Each record contains some information about the flight and a sequence of 3D position and estimated speed.

This data contains thousands of trajectories that can be used for trajectory clustering. The data is used by the Aircraft Noise Abatement Office to analyze the trajectories of aircraft flying in and out SFO. The objective is to minimize the noise pollution due to aircraft in the San Francisco Bay Area

The files have the extension "lt6" and are organized as follow, one file per day.

line number & explaination

1 TRACK OPNUM (TRACK header word and operation number)
2 eventid (Corralation number)
3 trackstart date (in time since 1900, A8 version four year digit)
4 trackstart time HH:MM:SS


5 trackend time HH:MM:SS
6 airportid
7 ACID (FLIGHTNUM/TAILNUMBER)
8 owner name
9 aircrafttype
10 aircraft category
11 beacon
12 adflag
13 waypoint
14 other_port (dest/origin)
15 runwayname


16 min alt
17 max alt
18 min range
19 max range
20 Count of trackpoints (to follow)
21 x,y,z,v,t (all points is meters relative to MRP, velocity and time from start of track)

China Air: Passenger Traffic: Domestic data was reported at 664.657 Person mn in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 590.516 Person mn for 2023. China Air: Passenger Traffic: Domestic data is updated yearly, averaging 95.618 Person mn from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2024, with 42 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 664.657 Person mn in 2024 and a record low of 0.210 Person mn in 1970. China Air: Passenger Traffic: Domestic data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Civil Aviation Administration of China. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Transportation and Storage Sector – Table CN.TI: Air: Passenger Traffic.

Russia Number of Flights: Domestic data was reported at 67,658.000 Number in Feb 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 71,658.000 Number for Jan 2022. Russia Number of Flights: Domestic data is updated monthly, averaging 55,400.000 Number from Jan 2010 (Median) to Feb 2022, with 146 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 127,409.000 Number in Jul 2021 and a record low of 27,413.000 Number in Feb 2010. Russia Number of Flights: Domestic data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Agency for Air Transport. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Transport and Telecommunications Sector – Table RU.TE003: Airlines Statistics: Number of Airlines, Aircrafts, Airports and Flights. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

This paper is a progress report of an effort whose goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of automated data mining and planning for the daily management of Earth Science missions. Currently, data mining and machine learning technologies are being used by scientists at research labs for validating Earth science models. However, few if any of these advancedtechniques are currently being integrated into daily mission operations. Consequently, there are significant gaps in the knowledge that can be derived from the models and data that are used each day for guiding mission activities. The result can be sub-optimal observation plans, lack of useful data, and wasteful use of resources. Recent advances in data mining, machine learning, and planning make it feasible to migrate these technologies into the daily mission planning cycle. This paper describes the design of a closed loop system for data acquisition, processing, and flight planning that integrates the results of machine learning into the flight planning process.

As a result of the continued annual growth in global air traffic passenger demand, the number of airplanes that were involved in accidents is on the increase. Although the United States is ranked among the 20 countries with the highest quality of air infrastructure, the U.S. reports the highest number of civil airliner accidents worldwide. 2020 was the year with more plane crashes victims, despite fewer flights The number of people killed in accidents involving large commercial aircraft has risen globally in 2020, even though the number of commercial flights performed last year dropped by 57 percent to 16.4 million. More than half of the total number of deaths were recorded in January 2020, when an Ukrainian plane was shot down in Iranian airspace, a tragedy that killed 176 people. The second fatal incident took place in May, when a Pakistani airliner crashed, killing 97 people. Changes in aviation safety In terms of fatal accidents, it seems that aviation safety experienced some decline on a couple of parameters. For example, there were 0.37 jet hull losses per one million flights in 2016. In 2017, passenger flights recorded the safest year in world history, with only 0.11 jet hull losses per one million flights. In 2020, the region with the highest hull loss rate was the Commonwealth of Independent States. These figures do not take into account accidents involving military, training, private, cargo and helicopter flights.

In financial year 2024, the total air passenger traffic in India reached more than 220 million passengers. It was a huge increase compared to the previous year. The domestic passenger traffic saw a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 percent from 2014 to 2024, while the international passenger traffic saw a 4.5 percent CAGR during the same period of time.

Russia Number of Flights data was reported at 106,742.000 Number in Feb 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 119,379.000 Number for Jan 2022. Russia Number of Flights data is updated monthly, averaging 117,995.000 Number from Jan 2010 (Median) to Feb 2022, with 146 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 189,980.000 Number in Aug 2019 and a record low of 53,348.000 Number in Apr 2020. Russia Number of Flights data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Federal Agency for Air Transport. The data is categorized under Russia Premium Database’s Transport and Telecommunications Sector – Table RU.TE003: Airlines Statistics: Number of Airlines, Aircrafts, Airports and Flights. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

Analysis of ‘New York City Airport Activity’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/sveneschlbeck/new-york-city-airport-activity on 28 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Context

This dataset contains randomly compiled data with detailed information about flights from New York City Airports in 2013 with parameters concerning the airports, the flights and the airlines involved.

Content

The table contains the following parameters:

- year: Year.
- month: Month.
- day: Day.
- dep_time: Departure time, in Eastern time zone.
- dep_delay: Departure delay, in minutes.
- arr_time: Arrival time, in the local time zone.
- arr_delay: Arrival delay, in minutes.
- carrier: Carrier, abbreviated.
- tailnum: Tail number of the airplane.
- flight: Flight number.
- origin: Flight origin, airport code.
- dest: Flight destination, airport code.
- air_time: Time in the air, in minutes.
- distance: Distance between the departure and arrival airports, in miles.
- hour: Scheduled departure hour.
- minute: Scheduled departure minute.

Analysis

Take a look at the notebook "nyc-flights" to get started on how to transform, analyse or visualize the data.

Data Source

Wickham H. 2014. nycflights13: Data about flights departing NYC in 2013. R package version 0.1.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

The National Security UAS Flight Restrictions in this dataset are currently pending and will become effective on November 07, 2019. The FAA, pursuant to Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) § 99.7, Special security instructions (SSI), has prohibited all UAS flight operations within the airspace defined under NOTAM FDC 7/7282 . Specific locations are described in the table and on the interactive map provided on this website. The TFRs extend from the surface up to 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL), apply to all types and purposes of UAS flight operations, and remain in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

WHAT UAS FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN PUT INTO PLACE?

At the request of and pursuant to agreements with the Department of Defense and U.S. Federal security and intelligence agencies (“sponsoring Federal agencies”), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has implemented Special Security Instructions for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), issued as temporary flight restrictions (TFR) over select national security sensitive facilities located throughout the U.S. These TFRs are established within the lateral boundaries of these facilities and extend from surface to 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL). These TFRs apply to all UAS operations specifically including:

· Public aircraft operations conducted in accordance with a Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA).

· Civil aircraft operations (other than model aircraft), including those conducted in accordance with a COA and those conducted in accordance with the FAA’s small UAS Rule, 14 CFR Part 107.

· Model Aircraft operations conducted in accordance with 14 CFR Part 101, Subpart E.

UAS operators must comply with these flight restrictions in addition to all other applicable Federal Aviation Regulations, including but not limited to, requirements to secure an FAA airspace authorization and/or waiver prior to flying in the airspace where a TFR is in effect.

The information on this website complements Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) NOTAM FDC 7/7282, which generally notifies the public about these temporary flight restrictions (TFR). This website provides UAS operators with more detailed information about these TFRs, including:

· An explanation of what is restricted

· A table listing the selected facilities over which a TFR has been established

· An interactive map providing visual depictions and information about specific TFRs and geospatial (GIS) data that can be downloaded

· An explanation of which UAS operations may be able to access the airspace within a TFR, including instructions for submitting a request

· Reminders on other requirements for UAS operations

WHAT HAPPENS IF I VIOLATE A TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTION (TFR)?

The FAA classifies the airspace encompassed by these temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) as “national defense airspace” in accordance with Title 49 of the United States Code (USC) § 40103(b)(3). Violations of these TFRs may prompt the following enforcement actions:

A. The U.S. Government may pursue criminal charges, including charges under Title 49 U.S.C § 46307.

B. The FAA may take administrative action, including imposing civil penalties and the revoking FAA certificates and authorizations to operate UAS under Title 49 U.S.C. §§ 44709 and 46301.

WHAT ARE THE BASIC FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS?

The FAA, pursuant to Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) § 99.7, Special security instructions (SSI), has prohibited all UAS flight operations within the airspace defined under NOTAM FDC 7/7282. Specific locations are described in the table and on the interactive map provided on this website. The TFRs extend from the surface up to 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL), apply to all types and purposes of UAS flight operations, and remain in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

See the full text of NOTAM FDC 7/7282 here.

ARE THERE EXCEPTIONS FOR UAS OPERATIONS TO ACCESS A TFR?

The FAA has authorized UAS operations within the TFRs if those flights are in compliance with the applicable requirements listed below:

1) The UAS flight operation has been pre-approved by the designated facility contact based on criteria established by the sponsoring federal agency in coordination with the FAA. Note: UAS operators seeking approval to operate in one of the TFRs defined in this website under this provision must contact the facility’s designated point of contact identified in the table or interactive map, and secure permission to operate within the airspace prior to entry. Pre-approval from the facility or sponsoring agency does not substitute for compliance with FAA requirements. Depending on the nature of the proposed operation and Class of airspace, waiver or authorization may be needed from the FAA before flight. For more information visit our website at www.faa.gov/uas

2). The UAS flight operation is conducted in direct support of an active national defense, homeland security, law enforcement, firefighting, search and rescue, or disaster response mission, and prior notification has been provided to the designated facility contact. Note: UAS operators seeking approval to operate in one of the TFRs defined in this website under this provision must contact the facility’s designated point of contact identified in the table or interactive map, and provide notification prior to entering the airspace. These operators must make every effort to coordinate with the designated facility to deconflict the UAS flight operation with any safety or security concerns stated by the facility and/or sponsoring Federal agency.

3). The UAS flight operation is conducted in direct support of a significant and urgent governmental interest and is approved by the FAA’s System Operations Support Center (SOSC) in advance of entering the TFR. Note: UAS operators, that meet the criteria for thisprovision , may also qualify for access under provision 2 outlined above and are encouraged to coordinate directly with the facility’s designated point of contact identified in the table or interactive map, by providing notification prior to entering the airspace and taking into consideration any safety or security concerns stated by the facility and/or sponsoring Federal agency.

For urgent and time sensitive requests, contact the FAA’s SOSC at (202) 267-8276 for expedited assistance. The FAA’s SOSC will coordinate with the facility and/or sponsoring Federal agency as appropriate.

ARE THERE OTHER REQUIREMENTS TO OPERATE IN A TFR IN ADDITION TO THE EXCEPTIONS?

Separate and distinct from any of the conditions cited above used to gain access to a TFR defined by NOTAM FDC 7/7282 and described in this website, UAS operators must comply with all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. For example:

For Model Aircraft:

· Comply with 14 CFR Part 101, Subpart E

NOTE: These provisions require model aircraft operators to notify any airport operator and air traffic control tower within 5 miles of the intended area of flight.

For All Other UAS Operators:

· Comply with a Public Aircraft Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA), or

· Comply with 14 CFR Part107, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or

· Comply with Section 333 Exemption and a Certificate of Authorization or Waiver (COA)

NOTE: Public and civil UAS operators flying under the provisions of a COA or 14 CFR Part 107 may need to secure further airspace authorizations or waivers in order to conduct the proposed flight operation in controlled airspace, which may overlap with one of the TFRs defined by NOTAM FDC 7/7282 and this website. In those cases, these operators should follow the pre-existing procedures outlined below.

A. Non-emergency requests for UAS airspace authorizations and waivers must be submitted using the regular process as follows:

· 14 CFR Part 107 requests for airspace authorizations and waivers must be submitted to the FAA athttps://www.faa.gov/uas/request_waiver/

·
Section 333 Exemption holders may request a site specific COA at https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/uas/portal.jsp

· Public aircraft operators without an existing authorization to operate must secure a public COA athttps://ioeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/Welcome.jsp

B. Emergency requests for UAS authorizations/waivers for missions that directly support significant and urgent governmental interests (e.g., active national defense, homeland security, law enforcement, and emergency operations missions), which cannot be supported by the FAA’s routine authorization/waiver processes should be referred to the SOSC at (202) 267-8276

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?

If you have any general questions regarding UAS operations, please refer to the following FAA webpage: https://www.faa.gov/uas/ , or contact the FAA by email at uashelp@faa.gov or by phone at (844) FLY-MY-UA.

If you have any additional questions regarding the TFRs defined by NOTAM FDC 7/7282 and this website, please contact the FAA SOSC at (202) 267-8276.

Disclaimers

The restrictions depicted on this site reflect temporary flight restrictions issued for national security reasons at select U.S. Federal facilities. There may be additional temporary flight restrictions that prohibit UAS and manned flight in effect in your area. Seehttp://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html for additional information on flight restrictions that may be in effect in your area before operating your UAS.

India’s leading low-cost air carrier, IndiGo, carried around 106.4 million domestic and international passengers in the financial year 2024. This was an increasing in comparison to the previous year.   The no-frills airline Established in 2006 and headquartered in Gurgaon, IndiGo climbed the airline ladder to become the largest passenger carrier with a market share of about 55 percent. The company’s focus was threefold – offering low fares mainly in the domestic market, being on-time and providing a smooth flying experience. IndiGo was the preferred airline among Indians and was known for its punctuality. Leading the domestic market IndiGo had 412 aircraft as part of its fleet and over a thousand daily flights to 122 destinations. As a low-cost carrier, it offers only economy seating and no complimentary meals on any flights. It was one of the leading budget airlines in terms of net profit in 2019. As an airline that operates mainly within the south Asian country, it has become a major player in the market since its establishment in 2015. It found a stronger foothold when its competitor Jet Airways suspended operation between early 2019 and mid-2022.

The volume of air-freight transport in the United Arab Emirates was forecast to decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.02 billion ton-kilometers. This overall decrease does not happen continuously, notably not in 2026 and 2027. The volume of air-freight transport is estimated to amount to 14 billion ton-kilometers in 2029. As defined by Worldbank, air freight refers to the summated volume of freight, express and diplomatic bags carried across the various flight stages (from takeoff to the next landing). The forecast has been adjusted for the expected impact of COVID-19.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the volume of air-freight transport in countries like Oman and Israel.

Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.

This data set contains radar soil moisture measurements taken over the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 (SMEX03) regional study areas in Oklahoma, USA. The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) instrument was mounted on a DC-8 aircraft that flew over the area six days during the study period, between 3 July and 12 July 2003. Six different scenes were collected over the Oklahoma South (OS) study area per flight day. Four flight lines were eastbound and covered the Little Washita (LW) watershed at incidence angles between approximately 35 and 45 degrees. The other two scenes were acquired in a northbound orientation and covered a large part of the regional study area at incidence angles between approximately 20 and 70 degrees. During the flight days over the Oklahoma North (ON) study area, two northbound lines were flown. These flight lines cover the full study area at incidence angle between 20 and 70 degrees. Total volume for this data set is approximately 26 GB. Data are provided in binary files, annotated JPEG files, and ASCII text files. All files are available via FTP.

These data were collected as part of a validation study for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). AMSR-E is a mission instrument launched aboard NASA's Aqua Satellite on 04 May 2002. AMSR-E validation studies linked to SMEX are designed to evaluate the accuracy of AMSR-E soil moisture data. Specific validation objectives include assessing and refining soil moisture algorithm performance; verifying soil moisture estimation accuracy; investigating the effects of vegetation, surface temperature, topography, and soil texture on soil moisture accuracy; and determining the regions that are useful for AMSR-E soil moisture measurements.