Articles | Volume 26, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8783-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8783-2026
Research article
 | 
24 Jun 2026
Research article |  | 24 Jun 2026

Tropospheric ozone trends and drivers at a Southern Hemisphere background site in Chile

Laura Gallardo, Charlie Opazo, Camilo Menares, Kevin Basoa, Lucas Castillo, Nikos Daskalakis, Maria Kanakidou, Carmen Vega, Nicolás Huneeus, Roberto Rondanelli, and Rodrigo Seguel

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Cited articles

Ainsworth, E. A.: Understanding and improving global crop response to ozone pollution, Plant J., 90, 886–897, https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13298, 2017. 
Akritidis, D., Pozzer, A., and Zanis, P.: On the impact of future climate change on tropopause folds and tropospheric ozone, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 14387–14401, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14387-2019, 2019. 
Anet, J. G., Steinbacher, M., Gallardo, L., Velásquez Álvarez, P. A., Emmenegger, L., and Buchmann, B.: Surface ozone in the Southern Hemisphere: 20 years of data from a site with a unique setting in El Tololo, Chile, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 6477–6492, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6477-2017, 2017. 
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We assert the role of methane and other drivers of change in explaining the growing tropospheric ozone (O3) trend at Tololo (30.17° S, 70.80° W, 2154 m a.s.l.), and we quantify the contributions of biomass burning and stratospheric and upper tropospheric O3, particularly during the late winter and spring. These findings enhance understanding of O3 variability in the Southern Hemisphere free troposphere and underscore the importance of sustained observations at Tololo amid climate change.
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