Global correlation patterns of ozone and CO concentrations from TES observations and model calculations

Five years of Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) daily, collocated ozone and CO profiles provide a unique opportunity to examine correlation patterns of the concentrations of these pollutants on a global scale. Here we use measurement data and output from four chemistry-climate and chemistry-transport models, in order to examine how ozone and CO co-vary in different regions of the globe and different seasons of the year. Agreement between the model correlation results and the observations increases confidence in our understanding of how CO pollution might be influencing ozone concentrations over specific regions and seasons. Disagreement between the measurements and the models indicates that over certain regions and during some seasons, important processes affecting tracer abundances (long-range transport, influence of clouds, emissions etc) may not be well represented in the models.