Measurement report: The Palau Atmospheric Observatory and its ozonesonde record – continuous monitoring of tropospheric composition and dynamics in the tropical western Pacific

Müller, Katrin; Tradowsky, Jordis S.; von der Gathen, Peter; Ritter, Christoph; Patris, Sharon; Notholt, Justus; Rex, Markus

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2169-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2169-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

StratoClim stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2169-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 4

Measurement report

|

21 Feb 2024

Measurement report |

| 21 Feb 2024

Measurement report: The Palau Atmospheric Observatory and its ozonesonde record – continuous monitoring of tropospheric composition and dynamics in the tropical western Pacific

Katrin Müller, Jordis S. Tradowsky, Peter von der Gathen, Christoph Ritter, Sharon Patris, Justus Notholt, and Markus Rex

Data sets

Ozone sonde and radio sonde data record Palau Atmospheric Observatory 2016-2021 (V1.0) Katrin Müller et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6920648

Upper air data: Sounding University of Wyoming http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

ERA5 data ECMWF https://apps.ecmwf.int/data-catalogues/era5/?stream=moda&levtype=sfc&expver=1&type=an&class=ea

MEI.v2 data NOAA https://psl.noaa.gov/enso/mei/

Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes version 6 ozonesonde profile data NASA/GSFC https://doi.org/10.57721/SHADOZ-V06

Short summary

The Palau Atmospheric Observatory is introduced as an ideal site to detect changes in atmospheric composition and dynamics above the remote tropical western Pacific. We focus on the ozone sounding program from 2016–2021, including El Niño 2016. The year-round high convective activity is reflected in dominant low tropospheric ozone and high relative humidity. Their seasonal distributions are unique compared to other tropical sites and are modulated by the Intertropical Convergence Zone.