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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ACPD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ACPD</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1680-7375</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus GmbH</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/acpd-9-25049-2009</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Tracer measurements in the tropical tropopause layer during the AMMA/SCOUT-O3 aircraft campaign</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Homan</surname>
<given-names>C. D.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Volk</surname>
<given-names>C. M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kuhn</surname>
<given-names>A. C.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Werner</surname>
<given-names>A.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Baehr</surname>
<given-names>J.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Viciani</surname>
<given-names>S.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ulanovski</surname>
<given-names>A.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ravegnani</surname>
<given-names>F.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Florence, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Central Aerological Observatory, Dolgoprudny, Russia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>CNR Institute of Atmospheric Science and Climate, Bologna, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>now at: Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>25</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2009</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>9</volume>
<issue>6</issue>
<fpage>25049</fpage>
<lpage>25084</lpage>
<permissions>
<license xlink:type="simple">
<license-p>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.</license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/25049/2009/acpd-9-25049-2009.html">This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/25049/2009/acpd-9-25049-2009.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/25049/2009/acpd-9-25049-2009.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/25049/2009/acpd-9-25049-2009.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>We present airborne in situ measurements made during the AMMA
(African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis)/SCOUT-O3 campaign between 31 July and 17 August 2006
on board the M55 Geophysica aircraft, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and
N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O were measured with the High Altitude Gas Analyzer (HAGAR), CO was measured
with the Cryogenically Operated Laser Diode (COLD) instrument, and O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; with the
Fast Ozone ANalyzer (FOZAN).
We analyze the data obtained during five local flights to study the dominant
transport processes controlling the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) above West-Africa:
deep convection up to the level of main convective outflow, overshooting of deep convection,
horizontal inmixing  across the subtropical tropopause, and horizontal transport across the
subtropical barrier.
Except for the flight of 13 August, distinct minima in CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; indicate convective outflow
of boundary layer air in the TTL. The CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; profiles show that the level of main
convective outflow was mostly located between 350 and 360 K, and for 11 August reached
up to 370 K. While the CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; minima indicate quite significant convective influence, the
O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; profiles suggest that the observed convective signatures were mostly not fresh, but
of older origin. When compared with the mean O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; profile measured during a previous
campaign over Darwin in November 2005, the O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; minimum at the main convective outflow
level was less pronounced over Ouagadougou. Furthermore O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; mixing ratios were much
higher throughout the whole TTL and, unlike over Darwin, rarely showed low values observed
in the regional boundary layer.
Signatures of irreversible mixing following overshooting of convective air were scarce
in the tracer data. Some small signatures indicative of this process were found in CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;
profiles between 390 and 410 K during the flights of 4 and 8 August, and in CO data at 410 K
on 7 August. However, the absence of expected corresponding signatures in other tracer data makes
this evidence inconclusive, and overall there is little indication from the observations that
overshooting convection has a profound impact on TTL composition during AMMA.
We find the amount of photochemically aged air isentropically mixed into the TTL across
the subtropical tropopause to be not significant. Using the N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O observations we estimate
the fraction of aged extratropical stratospheric air in the TTL to be 0.0&amp;plusmn;0.1 up to 370 K
during the local flights, increasing above this level to 0.2&amp;plusmn;0.15 at 390 K.
The subtropical barrier, as indicated by the slope of the correlation between N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O
and O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; between 415 and 490 K, does not appear as a sharp border between the tropics
and extratropics, but rather as a gradual transition region between 10 and 25&amp;deg; N latitude
where isentropic mixing between these two regions may occur.</p>
</abstract>
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