Fast transport from Southeast Asia boundary layer sources to Northern Europe: rapid uplift in typhoons and eastward eddy shedding of the Asian monsoon anticyclone2

During the TACTS aircraft campaign enhanced tropospheric trace gases such as CO, CH4, and H2O and reduced stratospheric O3 were measured in situ in the lowermost stratosphere over Northern Europe on 26 September 2012. The measurements indicate that these air masses differ from the stratospheric background. The calculation of 40 day backward trajectories with the trajectory module of the CLaMS model shows that these air masses are affected by the Asian monsoon anticyclone. Some air masses originate from the boundary layer in Southeast Asia/West Pacific and are rapidly lifted (1–2 days) within a typhoon. Afterwards they are injected directly into the anticyclonic circulation of the Asian monsoon. The subsequent long-range transport (8–14 days) of enhanced water vapour and pollutants to the lowermost stratosphere in Northern Europe is driven by eastward transport of tropospheric air from the Asian monsoon anticyclone caused by an eddy shedding event. We find that the combination of rapid uplift by a typhoon and eastward eddy shedding from the Asian monsoon anticyclone is an additional fast transport pathway that, in this study, carries boundary emissions from Southeast Asia/West Pacific within approximately 5 weeks to the lowermost stratosphere in Northern Europe