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A regional estimate of convective transport of CO from biomass burning
Author(s) -
Pickering Kenneth E.,
Scala John R.,
Thompson Anne M.,
Tao WeiKuo,
Simpson Joanne
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/92gl00036
Subject(s) - troposphere , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , convection , climatology , meteorology , geology , geography
We present a regional‐scale estimate of the fraction of biomass burning emissions that are transported to the free troposphere by deep convection. The focus is on CO and the study region is a part of Brazil that underwent intensive deforestation in the 1980's. The method of calculation is stepwise, scaling up from a prototype convective event, the dynamics of which are well‐characterized, to the vertical mass flux of carbon monoxide over the region. Satellite‐derived observations of the area extent of pollution from biomass burning and convective cloud cover are used in the scaling. Given uncertainties in CO emissions from biomass burning and the representativeness of the protoype event, it is estimated that 10–40 percent of CO emissions from the burning region may be rapidly transported to the free troposphere over the burning region. These relatively fresh emissions will produce O 3 efficiently in the free troposphere where O 3 has a longer lifetime than in the boundary layer.