The complete 3-year dataset of 4STAR sky-scans from ORACLES 2016–2018

Abstract. The NASA ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) airborne field campaigns deployed a 4STAR (Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research) instrument onboard a P-3 aircraft to measure columnar optical properties of biomass burning aerosol smoke plumes over the Southeast Atlantic Ocean from 2016 to 2018. Although 4STAR’s retrievals of aerosol optical properties from direct solar irradiances and diffuse sky radiances were performed, analyzed, and compared against other field campaigns via Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) campaign medians by Pistone et al., 2019 for ORACLES 2016, such an analysis was not extended to 2017 and 2018 due to previously unquantified instrument performance issues. As a result, only the 4STAR 2016 dataset was available to the public via https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/ORACLES/P3/2016_V3 (ORACLES Science Team, 2021a). The instrument issues were diagnosed and mitigated through use of a four-wavelength set, instead of the previous five-wavelength set. Uniform Quality Control (QC) standards were established to ensure consistent data quality across all three campaigns. This resulted in research-quality, four-wavelength 4STAR datasets for 2017 and 2018 that have since been archived along with the original five-wavelength 4STAR 2016 dataset on the NASA Earth Science Project Office website, replacing the older versions at https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/ORACLES/P3/2017_V3 (ORACLES Science Team, 2021b) and https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/ORACLES/P3/2018_V3 (ORACLES Science Team, 2021c). The four-wavelength 4STAR 2016 dataset, although not on the archival site, is also publicly available via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14659686 (Mitchell, 2025). Potential improvements to these initial releases, such as broadening the spectral range, substituting for missing flight-level albedo, and removing unreliable scattering angles, are discussed. The complete 3-year ORACLES 4STAR 2016–2018 has many uses, including the determination of subseasonal changes in aerosol properties, modelling aerosol evolution, and the validation of satellite-retrieved aerosol products.