Abstract. The Amazon Basin plays key roles in the carbon and water cycles, climate change, atmospheric chemistry, and biodiversity. It has already been changed significantly by human activities, and more pervasive change is expected to occur in the coming decades. It is therefore essential to establish long-term measurement sites that provide a baseline record of present-day climatic, biogeochemical, and atmospheric conditions and that will be operated over coming decades to monitor change in the Amazon region, as human perturbations increase in the future.The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) has been set up in a pristine rain forest region in the central Amazon Basin, about 150 km northeast of the city of Manaus. Two 80 m towers have been operated at the site since 2012, and a 325 m tower is nearing completion in mid-2015. An ecological survey including a biodiversity assessment has been conducted in the forest region surrounding the site. Measurements of micrometeorological and atmospheric chemical variables were initiated in 2012, and their range has continued to broaden over the last few years. The meteorological and micrometeorological measurements include temperature and wind profiles, precipitation, water and energy fluxes, turbulence components, soil temperature profiles and soil heat fluxes, radiation fluxes, and visibility. A tree has been instrumented to measure stem profiles of temperature, light intensity, and water content in cryptogamic covers. The trace gas measurements comprise continuous monitoring of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ozone at five to eight different heights, complemented by a variety of additional species measured during intensive campaigns (e.g., VOC, NO, NO 2 , and OH reactivity). Aerosol optical, microphysical, and chemical measurements are being made above the canopy as well as in the canopy space. They include aerosol light scattering and absorption, fluorescence, number and volume size distributions, chemical composition, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations, and hygroscopicity. In this paper, we discuss the scientific context of the ATTO observatory and present an overview of results from ecological, meteorological, and chemical pilot studies at the ATTO site.

Abstract. High-accuracy continuous measurements of greenhouse gases (CO 2 and CH 4 ) during the BARCA (Balanço Atmosférico Regional de Carbono na Amazônia) phase B campaign in Brazil in May 2009 were accomplished using a newly available analyzer based on the cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) technique. This analyzer was flown without a drying system or any in-flight calibration gases. Water vapor corrections associated with dilution and pressure-broadening effects for CO 2 and CH 4 were derived from laboratory experiments employing measurements of water vapor by the CRDS analyzer. Before the campaign, the stability of the analyzer was assessed by laboratory tests under simulated flight conditions. During the campaign, a comparison of CO 2 measurements between the CRDS analyzer and a nondispersive infrared (NDIR) analyzer on board the same aircraft showed a mean difference of 0.22±0.09 ppm for all flights over the Amazon rain forest. At the end of the campaign, CO 2 concentrations of the synthetic calibration gases used by the NDIR analyzer were determined by the CRDS analyzer. After correcting for the isotope and the pressure-broadening effects that resulted from changes of the composition of synthetic vs. ambient air, and applying those concentrations as calibrated values of the calibration gases to reprocess the CO 2 measurements made by the NDIR, the mean difference between the CRDS and the NDIR during Correspondence to: H. Chen (hchen@bgc-jena.mpg.de) BARCA was reduced to 0.05±0.09 ppm, with the mean standard deviation of 0.23±0.05 ppm. The results clearly show that the CRDS is sufficiently stable to be used in flight without drying the air or calibrating in flight and the water corrections are fully adequate for high-accuracy continuous airborne measurements of CO 2 and CH 4 .

To monitor the continental carbon cycle, a fully automated low maintenance measurement system is installed at the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory in Central Siberia (ZOTTO, 60 degrees 48'N, 89 degrees 21') since April 2009. A cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) analyzer continuously measures carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) from six heights up to 301 m a.g.l. Buffer volumes in each air line remove short term CO₂ and CH₄ mixing ratio fluctuations associated with turbulence, and allow continuous, near-concurrent measurements from all tower levels. Instead of drying the air sample, the simultaneously measured water vapor is used to correct the dilution and pressure-broadening effects for the accurate determination of dry air CO₂ and CH₄ mixing ratios. The stability of the water vapor correction was demonstrated by repeated laboratory and field tests. The effect of molecular adsorption in the wet air lines was shown to be negligible. The low consumption of four calibration tanks that need recalibration only on decadal timescale further reduces maintenance. The measurement precision (accuracy) of 0.04 ppm (0.09 ppm) for CO₂ and 0.3 ppb (1.5 ppb) for CH₄ is compliant with the WMO recommendations. The data collected so far (until April 2010) reveals a seasonal cycle amplitude for CO₂ of 30.4 ppm at the 301 m level

Abstract. Siberia is one of few continental regions in the Northern Hemisphere where the atmosphere may sometimes approach pristine background conditions. We present the time series of aerosol and carbon monoxide (CO) measurements between September 2006 and December 2011 at the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory (ZOTTO) in Central Siberia (61 • N; 89 • E). We investigate the seasonal, weekly and diurnal variations of aerosol properties (including absorption and scattering coefficients and derived parameters, such as equivalent black carbon (BC e ), Ångström exponent, single scattering albedo, and backscattering ratio) and the CO mixing ratios. Criteria were established to distinguish polluted from near-pristine air masses, providing quantitative characteristics for each type. Depending on the season, 23-36 % of the sampling time at ZOTTO was found to be representative of a clean atmosphere. The summer pristine data indicate that primary biogenic and secondary organic aerosol formation are quite strong particle sources in the Siberian taiga. The summer seasons 2007-2008 were dominated by an Aitken mode around 80 nm size, whereas the summer 2009 with prevailing easterly winds produced particles in the accumulation mode around 200 nm size. We found these differences to be mainly related to air temperature, through its effect on the production rates of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC) precursor gases. In winter, the particle size distribution peaked at 160 nm, and the footprint of clean background air was characteristic for aged particles from anthropogenic sources at great distances from ZOTTO and diluted biofuel burning emissions from domestic heating. The wintertime polluted air originates mainly from large cities south and southwest of the site; these particles have a dominant mode around 100 nm, and the BC e / CO ratio of 7-11 ng m −3 ppb −1 suggests dominant contributions from coal and biofuel burning for heating. During summer, anthropogenic emissions are the dominant contributor to the pollution particles at ZOTTO, while only 12 % of the polluted events are classified as biomass-burning-dominated, but then often associated with extremely high CO concentrations and aerosol absorption coefficients. Two biomass-burning case studies revealed different BC e / CO ratios from different fire types, with the agricultural fires in April 2008 yielding a very high ratio of 21 ng m −3 ppb −1 . Overall, we find that anthropogenic sources dominate the aerosol population at ZOTTO most of the time, even during nominally clean episodes in winter, and that near-pristine conditions are encountered only in the growing season and then only episodically.