The Atmospheric composition Validation Data Center (AVDC) is a centralized, long-term, archive for validation data hosted by the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. The AVDC mission is to support the Earth Observing System (EOS)-Aura validation and science activities, and the future “A-Train” Earth Science satellites validation activities.

Data archived at the AVDC originates from several special Aura validation campaigns, NASA aircraft and balloon deployments, established measurement networks for collection atmospheric data, the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC), the Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), among others.

The AVDC also supports the Aura mission by providing auxiliary meteorological data to enhance the science value of the validation data. In addition, orbit prediction tools are available to locate and predict satellite overpasses, co-located data products, and provide satellite instrument field of view (FOV) data.

Note that access to some areas of the Atmospheric composition Validation Data Center and the AVDC archive are guided by the AVDC data access protocol. For further information concerning the data protocol or data access, please contact the AVDC.