Analyse of ozone precursors with a lagrangian approach

Abstract

Emissions of ozone precursors by biomass burning activity in south Africa and Madagascar and stratospheric intrusions are the two sources controlling tropospheric ozone at Reunion. Located at 21°S, the site is strongly impacted by the subtropical jet stream activity during austral winter and spring. Ozone measurements at Reunion started in 1992 with the first radiosoundings. The measurements were enriched from 1998 with the installation of a LIDAR at the station. Ozone radiosonde measurements are also performed at Irene (South Africa) since 1990. In 1998, Irene and la Reunion joined the SHADOZ network (Thompson et al. 2003). The study presented here intends to analyse the ozone database with a lagrangian approach in order to compare the impact of photochemical and stratospheric sources on the tropospheric ozone burden in the region. This work starts with a comparative study of tropospheric ozone climatology and trends at two regional sites: La Reunion and Irene. The tropospheric ozone trends have been calculated both considering the whole tropospheric column and dividing the troposphere into three atmospheric sections standing for lower, middle and upper troposphere. The examination of data, the climatological studies and the trend calculations revealed specific features of data, the climatological characteristics of tropospheric ozone in the region and allowed to hypothesize on the evolution of regional sources. The analysis of the ozone database at Reunion with the lagrangian trajectory code Lacytraj revealed the seasonal behaviour of stratospheric intrusions, their seasonal features such as the depth of intrusions, the value of ozone mixing ratio in stratospheric air masses and vertical seasonal distributions of stratospheric intrusions. Key words: