Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 5 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-19713-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19713/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19713/2009/acpd-9-19713-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19713/2009/acpd-9-19713-2009.pdf 19713 19781 2009-09-23 An overview of the SCOUT-AMMA stratospheric aircraft, balloons and sondes campaign in West Africa, August 2006: rationale, roadmap and highlights F. Cairo f.cairo@isac.cnr.it J. P. Pommereau K. S. Law H. Schlager A. Garnier F. Fierli M. Ern M. Streibel S. Arabas S. Borrmann J. J. Berthelier C. Blom T. Christensen F. D'Amato G. Di Donfrancesco T. Deshler A. Diedhiou G. Durry O. Engelsen F. Goutail N. R. P. Harris E. R. T. Kerstel S. Khaykin P. Konopka A. Kylling N. Larsen T. Lebel X. Liu A. R. MacKenzie J. Nielsen A. Oulanowski D. J. Parker J. Pelon J. Polcher J. A. Pyle F. Ravegnani E. D. Rivière A. D. Robinson T. Röckmann C. Schiller F. Simões L. Stefanutti F. Stroh L. Some P. Siegmund N. Sitnikov J. P. Vernier C. M. Volk C. Voigt M. von Hobe S. Viciani V. Yushkov Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma, Italy LATMOS, CNRS UMR-7620, St-Maur-des-Fosses, France DLR Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany ICG-1, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK Institute of Geophysics, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Particle Chemistry Department, Mainz, Germany Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung (IMK), Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe und Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Firenze, Italy Ente Nazionale per le Nuove tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente, Frascati, Italy Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Wyoming University, Laramie, USA Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement-NIGER, Niamey, Niger Groupe de Spectroscopie Moleculaire et Atmospherique, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne and CNRS, Reims, France Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Oslo, Norway Center for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Central Aerological Observatory, Moscow, Russian Federation LTHE (UMR 5564), Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement-FRANCE, Grenoble, France Lancaster Environmental Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Laboratoire de Meteoreologie Dinamique, CNRS, Paris, France Chemistry Department, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands Istituto di Ricerche per la Protezione Idrogeologica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Firenze, Italy Geophysica-EEIG, Firenze, Italy INERA, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute - KNMI, The Netherlands Wuppertal University, Wuppertal, Germany National Centre for Atmospheric Science, NCAS-Climate, Cambridge, UK A multi-platform field measurement campaign involving aircraft and balloons took place over West Africa between 26 July and 25 August 2006, in the frame of the concomitant AMMA Special Observing Period and SCOUT-O₃ African tropical activities. <br><br> Specifically aiming at sampling the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, the high-altitude research aircraft M55 Geophysica was deployed in Ouagadougou (12.3&deg; N, 1.7&deg; W), Burkina Faso, in conjunction with the German D-20 Falcon, while a series of stratospheric balloon and sonde flights were conducted from Niamey (13.5&deg; N, 2.0&deg; E), Niger. <br><br> The stratospheric aircraft and balloon flights intended to gather experimental evidence for a better understanding of large scale transport, assessing the effect of lightning on NO_x production, and studying the impact of intense mesoscale convective systems on water, aerosol, dust and chemical species in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. 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