Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Jan 2011)

Impact of deep convection in the tropical tropopause layer in West Africa: in-situ observations and mesoscale modelling

  • F. Fierli,
  • E. Orlandi,
  • K. S. Law,
  • C. Cagnazzo,
  • F. Cairo,
  • C. Schiller,
  • S. Borrmann,
  • G. Di Donfrancesco,
  • F. Ravegnani,
  • C. M. Volk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-201-2011
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 201 – 214

Abstract

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We present the analysis of the impact of convection on the composition of the tropical tropopause layer region (TTL) in West-Africa during the AMMA-SCOUT campaign. Geophysica M55 aircraft observations of water vapor, ozone, aerosol and CO<sub>2</sub> during August 2006 show perturbed values at altitudes ranging from 14 km to 17 km (above the main convective outflow) and satellite data indicates that air detrainment is likely to have originated from convective cloud east of the flights. Simulations of the BOLAM mesoscale model, nudged with infrared radiance temperatures, are used to estimate the convective impact in the upper troposphere and to assess the fraction of air processed by convection. The analysis shows that BOLAM correctly reproduces the location and the vertical structure of convective outflow. Model-aided analysis indicates that convection can influence the composition of the upper troposphere above the level of main outflow for an event of deep convection close to the observation site. Model analysis also shows that deep convection occurring in the entire Sahelian transect (up to 2000 km E of the measurement area) has a non negligible role in determining TTL composition.