Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS) 2004: 1. Summertime upper troposphere/lower stratosphere ozone over northeastern North America

Anne Thompson (1) , Jesse Stone , Jacquelyn Witte (2) , Sonya Miller , Bradley Pierce (3) , Robert Chatfield , Samuel Oltmans (4) , Owen Cooper (5) , Amber Loucks , Brett Taubman , Bryan Johnson (6) , Everette Joseph (7) , Tom Kucsera (8) , John Merrill , Gary Morris (9) , Scott Hersey (10) , Gerry Forbes , Michael Newchurch (11) , F. J. Schmidlin (12) , David Tarasick (13) , Valérie Thouret (14) , Jean Pierre Cammas (14)

1 PennState Meteorology Department
2 Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory [ Greenbelt]
3 Department of nutrition, case Western Reserve University
4 NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory
5 CIRES - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
6 ESRL - NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
7 ASRC - Atmospheric Sciences Research Center
8 SSAI - Science Systems and Applications, Inc. [Lanham]
9 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Valparaiso]
10 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Houston]
11 UAH - University of Alabama in Huntsville
12 WFF - NASA Wallops Flight Facility
13 ECCC - Environment and Climate Change Canada
14 LAERO - Laboratoire d'aérologie

Coordinated ozonesonde launches from the Intercontinental Transport Experiment (INTEX) Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS) (http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/intex/ions.html) in July-August 2004 provided nearly 300 O3 profiles from eleven North American sites and the R/V Ronald H. Brown in the Gulf of Maine. With the IONS period dominated by low-pressure conditions over northeastern North America (NENA), the free troposphere in that region was frequently enriched by stratospheric O3. Stratospheric O3 contributions to the NENA tropospheric O3 budget are computed through analyses of O3 laminae (Pierce and Grant, 1998; Teitelbaum et al., 1996), tracers (potential vorticity, water vapor), and trajectories. The lasting influence of stratospheric incursions into the troposphere is demonstrated, and the computed stratospheric contribution to tropospheric column O3 over the R/V Ronald H. Brown and six sites in Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Nova Scotia, 23% ± 3%, is similar to summertime budgets derived from European O3 profiles (Collette and Ancellet, 2005). Analysis of potential vorticity, Wallops ozonesondes (37.9°N, 75.5°W), and Measurements of Ozone by Airbus In-service Aircraft (MOZAIC) O3 profiles for NENA airports in June-July-August 1996–2004 shows that the stratospheric fraction in 2004 may be typical. Boundary layer O3 at Wallops and northeast U.S. sites during IONS also resembled O3 climatology (June-July-August 1996–2003). However, statistical classification of Wallops O3 profiles shows the frequency of profiles with background, nonpolluted boundary layer O3 was greater than normal during IONS.

Mots clés: tropospheric ozone; ozonesondes; upper troposphere-lower stratosphere

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]

Anne Thompson, Jesse Stone, Jacquelyn Witte, Sonya Miller, Bradley Pierce, et al.. Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS) 2004: 1. Summertime upper troposphere/lower stratosphere ozone over northeastern North America. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2007, 112, ⟨10.1029/2006JD007441⟩. ⟨hal-00216875⟩