The Stratospheric Photochemistry, Aerosols and Dynamics Expedition (SPADE) was based at the NASA Ames Research Centre in California during portions of 1992 and 1993. This dataset contains 12 Z hemispheric analyses of potential vorticity, temperature, horizontal winds, and geopotential model data.

The overall data collection consist of measurements collected onboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft, and selected radiosonde soundings from stations in the region of the experiment. Flights were conducted during October and November of 1992, April and May of 1993, and October of 1993.

Theory team products come in two forms: as quantities evaluated along flight tracks and as global or hemispheric fields. Meteorological quantities, such as temperature, geopotential, and potential vorticity are available in both forms. They are based on analyses from both the U.S. National Meteorological Center and from the Assimilation Model of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Other quantities, available along flight tracks only, include visible reflectivity, cloud height, UV reflectivity, and total ozone. The first two are derived from GOES imagery, the last two from the Meteor TOMS sensor. Finally, calculations of mixing ratios of selected chemical species using a photochemical steady state model are available along the flight track.