Tropospheric ozone over a tropical Atlantic station in the Northern Hemisphere: Paramaribo, Surinam (6°N, 55°W)

Abstract

We present an analysis of 2.5 yr of weekly ozone soundings conducted at a new monitoring station in Paramaribo, Surinam (6°N, 55°W). This is currently one of only three ozone sounding stations in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) tropics, and the only one in the equatorial Atlantic region. Paramaribo is part of the Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozone Sounding program (SHADOZ). Owing to its position close to the equator, the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) passes over Paramaribo twice per year, which results in a semi-annual seasonality of many parameters including relative humidity and ozone. The dataset from Paramaribo is used to: (1) evaluate the ozone variability relative to precipitation, atmospheric circulation patterns and biomass burning; (2) contrast ozone at the NH equatorial Atlantic with that at nearby Southern Hemisphere (SH) stations Natal (6°S, 35°W) and Ascension (8°S, 14°W); (3) compare the seasonality of tropospheric ozone with a satellite-derived ozone product: tropical tropospheric ozone columns from the modified residual method (MR-TTOC). We find that Paramaribo is a distinctly Atlantic station. Despite its position north of the equator, it resembles nearby SH stations during most of the year. Transport patterns in the lower and middle troposphere during February and March differ from SH stations, which leads to a seasonality of ozone with two maxima. MR-TTOC over Paramaribo does not match the observed seasonality of ozone due to the use of a SH ozone sonde climatology in the MR method. The Paramaribo ozone record is used to suggest an improvement for Northern Hemisphere MR-TTOC retrievals. We conclude that station Paramaribo shows unique features in the region, and clearly adds new information to the existing SHADOZ record.