This dataset contains greenhouse gas profile measurements from the Amazon Integrated Carbon Analysis (AMAZONICA) project. AMAZONICA was an UK-Brasil Consortium funded by NERC (Natural Environmental Reasearch Council, UK) which aimed to quantify the carbon balance of the Amazon Basin and its associated contribution to global atmospheric change, to apportion and understand the processes contributing to the net Basin-wide flux observed and, to allow improved assessments of the likely role of the Amazon Basin in contributing and/or alleviating future planetary change. Data were collected and collated by the AMAZONICA team in the UK and Brazil and were deposited at BADC before the end of the project (expected end 2012 - mid 2013).

Profiles of greenhouse gases CO, CO2 and CH4 taken on board a small aircraft descending in a spiral from approximately 4,420m to about 300m a.s.l. (as close to the forest canopy as possible). Samples were taken by semi-automatically filling 12 (for the Tabatinga (TAB 69.7W, 6.0S), Alta Floresta (ALF 56.7W, 8.9S) and Rio Branco (RBA 67.9W, 9.3S) sites) and 17 (for the Santarem (SAN 65.0W, 2.9S) site) 0.7-litre flasks controlled from a microprocessor and contained in one suitcase. The profiles were taken frequently throughout the measurement campaign (2010-2012) between 12:00 and 13:00 local time - at which time, the boundary layer is close to being fully developed. Once a vertical profile had been sampled (one suitcase filled) it was analysed at the IPEN Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory in Sao Paulo, using a replica of the NOAA/ ESRL trace gas analysis system.