OBSERVATIONS OF DEPLETED OZONE WITHIN THE BOUNDARY-LAYER OF THE WESTERN NORTH-ATLANTIC

Ozone measurements taken between 0.90 and 2.5 km above the surface and extending over an 800-km radius from Halifax, Nova Scotia, are presented from aircraft flights between August 21 and September 14, 1992. The mean ozone mixing ratio was found generally to be greater above the top of the mixed layer than near the sea surface. Eleven of the 32 vertical profiles displayed an abrupt transition at the top of the boundary layer, with surface ozone mixing ratios having values of approximate to 15-20 ppb and values above the boundary layer increasing to approximate to 50-60 ppb. This transition between low and high mixing ratios was observed to occur over a vertical scale of less than 0.5 km in soundings taken within 4 hours of each other over horizontal distances of the order of several hundred kilometers. There was a well-mixed boundary layer in all cases where these sudden transitions in the ozone profiles were observed. These profiles are associated with subsidence over land, followed by dry deposition within a hydrocarbon-poor, well-mixed continental boundary layer. Ozone loss through surface deposition exceeded ozone production by the time the air masses arrived at the maritime coastal waters. Two other broad categories of profiles are described, the most common having the ozone mixing ratio increasing linearly with height to the top of the sampling domain at 2.5 km. A third category had only a local maximum in ozone with much smaller values higher and lower in the atmosphere.