Repeated Ozone Vertical Profiles Over Cyprus Using Adapted Ozonesondes.

Ozone is a secondary pollutant, toxic at high concentrations to life (fauna and flora), with reported direct impacts on hospitalisation numbers, mortality and crop yield reduction. Cyprus is an island locatedin the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounded by three pollution hotspots: Europe North/North-West, Asia and Middle-East to the East, and North-Africa to the South. Transportedanthropogenic pollution from those regions will translate to ozone formation downwind; potentially over Cyprus. However, ozone is titrated during dust events, which commonly originate from the Saharan andMiddle-eastern deserts in this region.The Cyprus Institutes Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory and Unmanned Research System Laboratory have miniaturised and adapted commercially available ozonesondes (EN-SCI ECCOzonesonde), usually used with balloon flights, to perform vertical profiles onboard fixed-wing UAVs. As part of the ACCEPT project, flights have occurred fortnightly in the early afternoon, when theboundary layer is fully expanded. Flights took place at the Cyprus Institutes private runway, in Orounda [Cyprus], to an altitude of up to 4km above ground; and sometimes with up to two sondes operating at once.We present the ozonesonde adaptation for use onboard UAVs and the preliminary result of several months of recurring vertical ozone profiling over Cyprus.