A pervasive role for biomass burning in tropical high ozone/low water structures.

Air parcels with mixing ratios of high O3 and low H2O (HOLW) are common features in the tropical western Pacific (TWP) mid-troposphere (300-700 hPa). Here, using data collected during aircraft sampling of the TWP in winter 2014, we find strong, positive correlations of O3 with multiple biomass burning tracers in these HOLW structures. Ozone levels in these structures are about a factor of three larger than background. Models, satellite data and aircraft observations are used to show fires in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia are the dominant source of high O3 and that low H2O results from large-scale descent within the tropical troposphere. Previous explanations that attribute HOLW structures to transport from the stratosphere or mid-latitude troposphere are inconsistent with our observations. This study suggest a larger role for biomass burning in the radiative forcing of climate in the remote TWP than is commonly appreciated.We thank L. Pan for coordinating the CONTRAST flights and her constructive criticism of an early version of the manuscript; S. Schauffler, V. Donets and R. Lueb for collecting and analysing AWAS samples; T. Robinson and O. Shieh for providing meteorology forecasts in the field; and the pilots and crews of the CAST BAe-146 and CONTRAST Gulfstream V aircrafts for their dedication and professionalism. CAST was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council; CONTRAST was funded by the National Science Foundation. Research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, is performed under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A number of the US-based investigators also benefitted from the support of NASA as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or US Government position, policy or decision. We would like to acknowledge high-performance computing support from Yellowstone (ark:/85065/d7wd3xhc) provided by NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1026