The Carbon Monoxide Tape Recorder

Abstract

Using Aura MLS data we have identified the stratospheric tape recorder in carbon monoxide (CO). Unlike the water vapor tape recorder, which is controlled by upper troposphere processes, the CO tape recorder is linked to seasonal biomass burning. Since CO has a lifetime of only a few months, the CO tape recorder barely extends above 20 km. The tape head for CO appears to be close to 360K near the same location as the water vapor tape head [Read et al, 20041. Both tape heads are below the equatorial cold point tropopause but above the base of the tropical tropopause layer. The tape recorder signal becomes more distinct from 360K to 380K suggesting that convective detrainment of plays a decreasingly important role with altitude. The Global Modeling Initiative chemical transport model forced by the climatology of biomass burning reproduces the CO tape recorder