ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-4-361-2004 Space-borne observations link the tropical atlantic ozone maximum and paradox to lightning Jenkins G. S. 1 Ryu J.-H. 1 Department of Meteorology, Penn State University, 503 Walker Building University Park, Pennsylvania, USA 25 02 2004 4 2 361 375 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/4/361/2004/acp-4-361-2004.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/4/361/2004/acp-4-361-2004.pdf

The potential enhancement of tropospheric column ozone values over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean on a seasonal basis by lightning is investigated using satellite derived ozone data, TRMM lightning data, ozonesonde data and NCEP reanalysis during 1998-2001. Our results show that the number of lightning flashes in Africa and South America reach a maximum during September, October and November (SON). The spatial patterns of winds in combination with lightning from West Africa, Central Africa and South America is likely responsible for enriching middle/upper troposphere ozone over the Tropical South Atlantic during SON. Moreover, lightning flashes are high in the hemisphere opposite to biomass burning during December, January, and February (DJF) and June, July and August (JJA). This pattern leads to an enrichment of ozone in the middle/upper troposphere in the Southern Hemisphere Tropics during DJF and the Northern Hemisphere Tropics during JJA. During JJA the largest numbers of lightning flashes are observed in West Africa, enriching tropospheric column ozone to the north of 5<IMG WIDTH="10" HEIGHT="16" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" src="acp-4-361-img1.gif" ALT="$^circ$">S in the absence of biomass burning. During DJF, lightning is concentrated in South America and Central Africa enriching tropospheric column ozone south of the Equator in the absence of biomass burning.