During the austral spring months of September and October when biomass burning is prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere, long-range transport can move the biomass burning byproducts from southern Africa to the Pacific Basin. Meteorological data from September 1996 were used to examine the transport from Africa using forward trajectories. Long-range transport is defined as trajectories that extend from Africa eastward to at least 110°E within 10 days. Five categories were found from trajectory analysis to constitute the major long-range transport pathways: zonal flow (35%) and four anticyclonic flows over Australia (5%), the western Pacific (5%), Easter Island (0.8%) and South America (0.9%). Chemical data collected during NASA's Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics, Phase A (PEM-Tropics A) and Transport and Atmospheric Chemistry near the Equator- Atlantic (TRACE-A) missions were studied to determine the chemical evolution of burning byproducts during the long-range transport. Photochemical decay and physical mixing with background air were both found to be important dilution processes, with estimates of physical mixing lifetimes shorter than photochemical decay lifetimes. Greater values of pollution were detected at mid-tropospheric altitudes over the Pacific Basin, suggesting that more pollution is transported to mid-levels at long ranges. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Meteorology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2005. / July 13, 2005. / Pollution, Chemical Transport, Trajectory / Includes bibliographical references. / Henry E. Fuelberg, Professor Directing Thesis; Jon Ahlquist, Committee Member; Philip Cunningham, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180465 |
| Contributors | Morse, Danielle M. (authoraut), Fuelberg, Henry E. (professor directing thesis), Ahlquist, Jon (committee member), Cunningham, Philip (committee member), Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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