Tropospheric carbon monoxide measurements from the Scanning High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder on 7 September 2000 in southern Africa during SAFARI 2000

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research 2003-07, Vol.108 (D13), p.n/a
• Main Authors: McMillan, W. W., McCourt, M. L., Revercomb, H. E., Knuteson, R. O., Christian, T. J., Doddridge, B. G., Hobbs, P. V., Lukovich, J. V., Novelli, P. C., Piketh, S. J., Sparling, L., Stein, D., Swap, R. J., Yokelson, R. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Geophysics
• ISSN: 0148-0227; 2156-2202
• DOI: 10.1029/2002JD002335

Retrieved tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) column densities are presented for more than 9000 spectra obtained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWis) Scanning High-Resolution Interferometer Sounder (SHIS) during a flight on the NASA ER-2 on 7 September 2000 as part of the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) dry season field campaign. Enhancements in tropospheric column CO were detected in the vicinity of a controlled biomass burn in the Timbavati Game Reserve in northeastern South Africa and over the edge of the river of smoke in south central Mozambique. Relatively clean air was observed over the far southern coast of Mozambique. Quantitative comparisons are presented with in situ measurements from five different instruments flying on two other aircraft: the University of Washington Convair-580 (CV) and the South African Aerocommander JRB in the vicinity of the Timbavati fire. Measured tropospheric CO columns (extrapolated from 337 to 100 mb) of 2.1 x 10(exp 18) per square centimeter in background air and up to 1.5 x 10(exp 19) per square centimeter in the smoke plume agree well with SHIS retrieved tropospheric CO columns of (2.3 plus or minus 0.25) x 10(exp 18) per square centimeter over background air near the fire and (1.5 plus or minus 0.35) x 10(exp 19) per square centimeter over the smoke plume. Qualitative comparisons are presented with three other in situ CO profiles obtained by the South African JRA aircraft over Mozambique and northern South Africa showing the influence of the river of smoke.