Pandonia Global Network
Applications
PGN
In 2005, NASA initiated an effort at Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC) to address the gap in validation measurements by developing a cost-effective, easily deployable, ground-based spectrometer called Pandora.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) collaborated to coordinate and facilitate an expanding global network of standardized, calibrated Pandora instruments focused on air quality at atmospheric composition. The creation of this network ensures systematic processing and dissemination of data to the greater global community in support of in-situ and remotely sensed air quality monitoring. This effort is known as the Pandonia Global Network (PGN), consisting of SciGlob’s Pandora instruments at the locations shown on the map above.
The first deployment of SciGlob’s Pandora Spectrometer took place in Greece. Its success led to the official launch of the PGN in mid-2019, resulting in the establishment of fixed long-term Pandora installment locations. These installments focused on providing long-term quality observations of the total column and vertically resolved concentrations of a range of trace gases. As of 2022, over 160 Pandora Spectrometers have been deployed globally, and PGN has and continues to provide real-time air quality data.
The PGN provides real-time, standardized, calibrated, and verified air quality and associated uncertainty values. In the context of satellite validation, PGN data sets represent Fiducial Reference Measurements. PGN also seeks to coordinate and implement network standards regarding common algorithms and data processing, instrument operation routines, quality control, real-time data processing, and data archiving. The instruments of the PGN are owned and operated by a large number of individual participating institutions. Participation in the PGN, which is open to anybody, entitles the instrument owner to receive support in instrument installation, operation, and maintenance by the PGN team, and ensures that data produced by the instrument will be calibrated, processed, visualized, and distributed on the PGN central server.