Increased Northern Hemispheric carbon monoxide burden in the troposphere in 2002 and 2003 detected from the ground and from space

L. N. Yurganov (1) , P. Duchatelet (2) , A. V. Dzhola (3) , D. P. Edwards (4) , F. Hase (5) , I. Kramer (5) , E. Mahieu (2) , J. Mellqvist (6) , J. Notholt (7) , P. C. Novelli (8) , A. Rockmann (9) , H. E. Scheel (9) , M. Schneider (5) , A. Schulz (10) , A. Strandberg (6) , R. Sussmann (9) , H. Tanimoto (11) , V. Velazco (7) , J. R. Drummond (12) , J. C. Gille (4)

1 FRCGC - Frontier Research Center for Global Change
2 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
3 IAP - A.M.Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics
4 Atmospheric Chemistry Division [Boulder]
5 IMK - Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research
6 Department of Radio and Space Science [Göteborg]
7 University of Bremen
8 CMDL - NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory
9 IMK-IFU - Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung - Atmosphärische Umweltforschung
10 Alfred Wegener Institute [Potsdam]
11 NIES - National Institute for Environmental Studies
12 University of Toronto

Carbon monoxide total column amounts in the atmosphere have been measured in the High Northern Hemisphere (30°?90° N, HNH) between January 2002 and December 2003, based on the analysis of infrared solar spectra recorded with spectrometers of high and moderate resolution. They are compared to ground-level CO mixing ratios and to total column amounts measured from space by the Terra/MOPITT instrument. In comparison to the unperturbed 2000?2001 period, all these databases reveal increased CO abundances in 2002?2003 summer-autumn times, with maximum anomalies observed in September 2002 and August 2003. Using a simple two-box model, the corresponding annual CO emission anomalies have been found equal to 98 Tg in 2002 and 142 Tg in 2003, thus close to those for 1996 and 1998. It is most likely that strong boreal forest fires in the HNH induced the increased CO burdens.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère

L. N. Yurganov, P. Duchatelet, A. V. Dzhola, D. P. Edwards, F. Hase, et al.. Increased Northern Hemispheric carbon monoxide burden in the troposphere in 2002 and 2003 detected from the ground and from space. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 2004, 4 (5), pp.4999-5017. ⟨hal-00301411⟩