Transport and mixing processes in the lower troposphere over the ocean

Abstract

Aircraft observations during the summer over the eastern Pacific Ocean, ≥400 km offshore, show that the free troposphere has a distinctly nonuniform, layered structure. Analysis of plots of ozone versus total water mixing ratio indicates that the layers typically consist of a mixture of air from several sources: 1) moist, ozone-depleted boundary layer air, 2) very dry air with high ozone content, which probably originated in the middle or upper troposphere, and 3) air with relatively low ozone and moderate, varying moisture contents, which may represent residues of convective clouds that had formed over the ocean upstream of the research area. On two research days we also observed what we infer to be continental air. -from Authors