Space-borne observations link the tropical atlantic ozone maximum and paradox to lightning

Abstract

Abstract. The potential enhancement of tropospheric column ozone values over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean on a seasonal basis by lightning is investigated using satellite derived ozone data, TRMM lightning data, ozonesonde data and NCEP reanalysis during 1998-2001. Our results show that

Multiyear Observations of the Tropical Atlantic Atmosphere: Multidisciplinary Applications of the NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Science Expeditions

“…Furthermore, elevated mid to upper tropospheric NH O 3 is seen to span much of the tropical North Atlantic during these periods in the zonal cross sections (not shown). These observations thus seem to corroborate earlier observations of a NH O 3 maximum in JJA (e.g., Jenkins and Ryu 2004;Ziemke et al 2006;Jenkins et al 2008).…”

“…Tropospheric ozone dynamics. The "tropical Atlantic ozone paradox" and "zonal wave one" are related tropospheric phenomena that have been the subject of considerable recent research (e.g., Jonquières et al 1998;Thompson et al 2000Thompson et al , 2003Jenkins and Ryu 2004;Sauvage et al 2006;Ziemke et al 2006;Jourdain et al 2007;Jenkins et al 2008). Roughly speaking, the term "paradox" refers to an unexpected seasonal periodic behavior in free tropospheric O 3 over the tropical North and South Atlantic, assuming tropospheric ozone formation from ozone precursors arising from biomass burning.…”

“…During the Aerosols99 interhemispheric cruise, Thompson et al (2000) noted that the highest SH tropospheric O 3 is observed from both in situ ozonesonde and satellites during boreal autumn, 2-3 months after peak regional biomass burning. Jenkins and Ryu (2004) extended the "Atlantic paradox" conceptual model to the NH by observing that seasonally elevated total column ozone (TCO) values in the NH (SH) occur during the periods of SH (NH) biomass burning. They attributed this behavior primarily to NO x formation (an O 3 precursor) arising from seasonally consistent lightning patterns in central and western Africa, followed by advection via easterly winds.…”

Global lightning NO<sub>x</sub> production estimated by an assimilation of multiple satellite data sets

“…LNO x accounts for only about 10-20 % of the global NO x sources, but is the most dominant source in the upper troposphere (e.g., Galloway et al, 2004). A small fraction of LNO x can lead to significant ozone production in the upper troposphere (Thompson et al, 1994) because the O 3 production efficiency per NO x molecule typically increases with height, owing to the longer lifetime of NO x and the highly non-linear dependence of ozone production on NO x (Pickering et al, 1998;Martin et al, 2000;Jenkins and Ryu, 2004). Therefore, accurate estimates of LNO x source strength and its global distribution are important for understanding tropospheric chemical systems and for improving chemical transport models (CTMs).…”

Cross-hemispheric transport of central African biomass burning pollutants: implications for downwind ozone production

“…One important feature of African tropospheric O 3 is the so-called maximum O 3 pattern (Weller et al, 1996;Thompson et al, 1996b;Jenkins and Ryu, 2004a): high concentrations over the tropical Atlantic are enhanced throughout the year. During boreal summer (wet season), the O 3 maximum is generally located close to the West African coast around −10 • S but O 3 enhancements can extend further north (up to 5 • N) and south (−20 • S).…”