The first regular measurements of ozone, carbon monoxide and water vapour in the Pacific UTLS by IAGOS

Abstract

We present the features seen in the first 2 months (July and August 2012) of data collected over the Pacific by IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System)-equipped aircraft. IAGOS is the continuation and development of the well-known MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone and Water Vapour on Airbus in-service Aircraft) project where scientific instruments were carried on commercially operated A340 aircraft to make measurements of chemical species in the atmosphere. Here, we show data from an aircraft operated by China Airlines on routes from Taipei to Vancouver, which provided the first trans-Pacific measurements by an IAGOS-equipped aircraft. We describe the chemical composition of the extratropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (Ex-UTLS) across the Pacific basin in the Northern Hemisphere. The observed concentrations of ozone span a range from 18 to 500 ppbv indicating sources in the marine boundary layer and lowermost stratosphere, respectively. Concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) greater than 400 ppbv are observed in the Ex-UTLS suggesting that plumes of pollution have been exported from the continent. These low concentrations of ozone and high concentrations of CO were rarely recorded in 8 yr of MOZAIC observations over the Atlantic.

• ozone
• carbon monoxide
• Pacific
• IAGOS
• UTLS

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC-IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry climate research measurements from airbus commerical aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC-IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry climate research measurements from airbus commerical aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net

Acknowledgements

The programmes MOZAIC and CARIBIC, and the current Research Infrastructure IAGOS, are operated with support from the European Commission, national agencies in Germany (BMBF), France (MESR) and the UK (NERC), and the IAGOS member institutions (www.iagos.org/partners). The participating airlines (Lufthansa, Air France, Austrian, China Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Air Namibia, Sabena) supported IAGOS by carrying the measurement equipment free of charge since 1994. The data are available at www.iagos.fr. Thanks to additional support from ETHER. J. W. Kaiser was funded in the EU H2020 project MACC-III (contract no. 633080).

Notes

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC-IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry climate research measurements from airbus commerical aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net