4.3
Linking Meteorological Processes using the TRMM data to biomass burning and tropospheric ozone in Central Africa
PAPER WITHDRAWN
Gregory S. Jenkins, Penn State Univ., University Park, PA; and V. R. Morris
Ozone production associated with constituents from biomass burning in East Africa has been suggest as a link to high tropospheric ozone values that are found over the Tropical Atlantic during September and October. During November the source of fire shifts into the Northern Hemisphere over West Africa. We have suggested in an early study that deep convection is responsible for the vertical transport of ozone/ozone precursors. However, there is limited understanding on the mesoscale convective systems that are responsible for the vertical transport over Central Africa. Data during 1998 and 1999 associated with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite is used to examine the average characteristics of the mesoscale convective systems that develop over Central Africa during September, October and November. When averageing over the region from 3N-10S, 10E-30E the largest 1998 precipitation rates are found during November in the historical gridded data and the TRMM merged data, but October from the precipitation radar (PR) estimates. The PR data shows the highest precipitation rates over Central Congo during September and October just downstream of fires, but this precipitaton pattern is shifted westward during November. Most of the precipitation falls as convective precipitation during the three months and the mean height of storms are highest during October as estimated by PR. All of these factors suggest that deep convection vents ozone/ozone precursors from the planetary boundary layer to the upper troposphere in a short period of time, where the lifetime of ozone is extended. Similar processes can occur just north of the Equator during November when ozone and ozone precursors are transported equatorward into regions of deep convection.
Session 4, Stratospheric heterogeneous chemistry and stratosphere-troposphere exchange
Tuesday, 11 January 2000, 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
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