Biomass burning and deep convection in southeastern Asia: Results from ASHOE/MAESA

There was extensive biomass burning in Indonesia, northern Australia, and New Guinea during September and October 1994. This paper discusses two accidental encounters of biomass plumes from the 1994 Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment and Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft campaign (ASHOE/MAESA). During the October 23 descent into Fiji, and an ascent from Fiji on October 24, the NASA ER-2 passed through layers highly enhanced in NO, NOy, CO, and O-3. These layers occurred near an altitude of 15 km. Back trajectories and satellite images indicate that the layers probably originated as outflow from a convective disturbance near New Guinea. The measurements indicate that deep convection can inject emissions from southeast Asian biomass burning to near tropical tropopause altitudes. Deep convection magnifies the impact of biomass burning on tropospheric chemistry because of the much longer residence times and chemical lifetimes of species in the upper tropical troposphere. Transport of the products of southeast Asian biomass burning into the upper tropical troposphere, followed by southward high-level outflow and advection by the subtropical jet, may play a significant role in dispersing these emissions on a global scale. Anthropogenic emissions from countries in southeast Asia are likely to increase in the future as these countries become more highly industrialized. This transport mechanism may play a role in increasing the impact of these types of emissions as well.