Intercontinental Transport of Ozone from Tropical Biomass Burning

Abstract

Photochemically reactive gases released by fires (e.g., NO, CO, hydrocarbons) interact as they do in an urban environment to form ozone. There has been interest in the impacts of tropical biomass fires on ozone since about 1980. Evidence for intercontinental transport of ozone from tropical burning appeared in the mid-1980s. Tropical meteorology plays a part in tropospheric ozone distributions in the tropics through interactions of pollution with large-scale circulation, deep convection, regional phenomena (e.g., Atlantic subsidence, the West African and Asian monsoons). Characteristics of dynamical patterns affecting tropical tropospheric ozone are described. Selected observations, mostly based on satellite views and soundings, illustrate regional influences and intercontinental-scale transport over the Indian Ocean region, the Pacific and the Atlantic.