Abstract. Air samples at 8.5-13 km were collected regularly using a commercial airliner between Australia and Japan, and they were measured for CO mixing ratios to obtain time series data from April 1993 to July 1996. When averaged over 12 latitudinal bands between 30øN and 30øS, two overall features emerge from these data. First, CO levels in the upper troposphere decreased in all latitudinal bands. Second, the seasonal cycle showed significant differences between the northern and southern hemispheres. In the southern hemisphere a strong maximum in the CO mixing ratio (up to around 90 ppb) was found in October-November. The most likely source for this enhanced CO is tropical biomass burning. Methane oxidation and transport of industrial CO from the northern hemisphere were estimated as relatively minor sources during the austral spring. Air mass trajectories indicate that an extremely high CO level of -•130 ppb observed in November 1994 between 100 and 20øS was due to enhanced biomass burning in Southeast Asia and/or northern Australia. On the other hand, air mass trajectories for the 20 ø 30øS region indicate that CO-rich air from biomass burnings over southern Africa or South America was transported across the South Indian Ocean within •-1 week by the strong westerly winds around the subtropical jet. Tnus it is concluded that a rapid horizontal transport coupled with deep convection plays an important role in the appearance of the CO spring peak in the upper troposphere over the western South Pacific.
A B S T R A C TAircraft observation under the Pacific Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (PACE) program was performed from February 13 to 21, 2000 to examine in detail the distributions of CO 2 in the free troposphere between 5 and 11 km. Continuous measurements of CO 2 mixing ratios were made using an on-board measuring system over the northern North Pacific between Nagoya, Japan and Anchorage, Alaska, and the western North Pacific between Nagoya and Saipan. Other trace gases, such as CO and O 3 , were also observed using continuous measuring systems at the same time. CO 2 over the northern Pacific (35 • N and higher) showed highly variable mixing ratios, ranging from 374 ppm in the upper troposphere to 366 ppm in the lowermost stratosphere. This highly variable distribution of CO 2 was quite similar to that of CO, but the relationship between CO 2 and O 3 showed a strong negative correlation. These results indicated that the exchange process between the stratosphere and the troposphere significantly influences the large CO 2 variation. On the other hand, the CO 2 over the western North Pacific to the south of Japan showed no significant variation in the upper troposphere at 11 km but a relatively larger variability at 5 km. The CO 2 enhancement at lower altitudes coincided with the CO elevation due to the intrusion of a polluted air mass. Trajectory analysis indicated that the Asian continental outflow perturbed the CO 2 distributions over the western Pacific. Very low mixing ratios of O 3 of less than 20 ppb were distributed in the latitude band of 15-30 • N at 11 km, reflecting the effects of transport from the equatorial region.
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