An extreme CO pollution event over Indonesia measured by the MOPITT instrument

Abstract. In the fall of 2006, the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument on the Terra satellite observed an extremely high Carbon monoxide (CO) concentration over Indonesia. This extreme event was caused by huge fire activity during the 2006 El Nino event. From our comparison with other high CO pollution events over Indonesia during similar and moderate El Nino events, we conclude that the 2006 fire activity, which caused large-scale pollution in this region, was probably amplified by an increase in frequency and/or intensity of lightning activity in a feedback mechanism. We also observed that after the fire episodes in El Nino years, the "lightning rate" was less than during the fire episode but displayed an increasing trend across the three events observed that might have been be caused by interactions with fire smoke plumes.