Use of remote ozone and aerosol measurements and back trajectory calculations in interpretation of the Arctic troposphere springtime ozone maximum
Abstract
The Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) mission, which ran from February 4 to May 23, 2000, had as its major goal to investigate the chemical and dynamic evolution of tropospheric composition over mid- to high-latitude continental North America during the winter/spring transition, with particular emphasis on the springtime ozone maximum. The NASA Langley UV differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system participated in that mission, and was able to provide vertical cross sections of aerosol and ozone distributions from near the surface to the lower stratosphere along the flight tracks. During the early part of the mission, the air was relatively cold and stable, and thin layers of elevated aerosols and ozone were often observed. For example, on February 25, layers of enhanced aerosols and ozone were observed from 2-6 km. The back trajectories from the flight track in the 60o-70oN region were from Arizona, California, and Washington state. On the flights from 60o-70oN of April 4, 7, 25, 28 and May 18, the highest ozone in the 2-6 km region of tropospheric origin was observed. (On 4 of these flights the only SO2 plumes north of 60oN were seen.) The 5-day back trajectories for these 5 flight segments were primarily from Siberia or East Asia, from approximately 65o-80oN and 90o-180oE. The flight of April 25 also had elevated ozone mixing ratio for a 5-day back trajectory going back to Japan (40oN, 140oE). Inspection of the NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, web site (http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/) indicates that when the back trajectories ended in Siberia and East Asia, the air flow to there was usually coming from urban/industrial regions of Europe, Russia or East Asia, with that from Europe sometimes going south before heading north. Additional in situ chemical concentration data will be examined to aid in the determination of source regions of the elevated ozone. This transport process can be a significant contributing factor to the observed springtime ozone maximum observed in the Arctic free troposphere.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM...A32A06G
- Keywords:
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- 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345;
- 4801);
- 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305);
- 0365 Troposphere--composition and chemistry;
- 0368 Troposphere--;
- onstituent transport and chemistry