The 1997 El Niño impact on clouds, water vapour, aerosols and reactive trace gases in the troposphere, as measured by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment

Abstract

The El Niño event of 1997/1998 caused dry conditions over the Indonesian area that were followed by large scale forest and savannah fires over Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java, and parts of Irian Jaya. Biomass burning was most intense between August and October 1997, and large amounts of ozone precursors, such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons were emitted into the atmosphere. In this work, we use satellite measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) sensor to study the teleconnections between the El Niño event of 1997 and the Indonesian fires, clouds, water vapour, aerosols and reactive trace gases (nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde and ozone) in the troposphere.