Tropospheric carbon monoxide and hydrogen measurements over Kalimantan in Indonesia and northern Australia during October, 1997

Abstract

During the PACE‐5 campaign over Australia and Indonesia in October 1997, we used an aircraft to measure carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). Latitudinal distributions of CO and H2 clearly showed a large increase from northern Australia to Kalimantan in Indonesia. Elevated CO levels over northern Australia were observed only in the smoke plumes of savanna fires. A thick smoke haze from forest fires over Kalimantan contained very high CO mixing ratios of 3 to 9 ppm. These enhanced CO mixing ratios correlated well with increased concentrations of H2, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and aerosols. Emission ratios from biomass burning in Kalimantan ranged 0.06 0.1 for H2/CO (ppb/ppb), 0.0002 to 0.0005 for NOx/CO (ppb/ppb), and 0.43 to 1.0 for number of aerosols/CO (cm−3/ppb). These values were much lower than emission ratios in northern Australia. This difference suggests that the biomass burning in Indonesia was intense and that, due to a strong El Niño event, an unique composition of trace gases was formed in the smoke haze.