Observations of ozone depletion events in a Finnish boreal forest

Abstract

We investigated the concentrations and vertical profiles of ozone over a 20-year period (1996-2016) at the SMEAR II station in southern Finland. Our results showed that the typical daily median ozone concentrations were in the range of 20-50 ppb with clear diurnal and annual patterns. In general, the profile of ozone concentrations illustrated an increase as a function of heights. The main aim of our study was to address the frequency and strength of ozone depletion events at this boreal forest site. We observed more than a thousand of 10 min periods at 4.2 m, with ozone concentrations below 10 ppb, and a few tens of cases with ozone concentrations below 2 ppb. Among these observations, a number of ozone depletion events that lasted for more than 3 h were identified, and they occurred mainly in autumn and winter months. The low ozone concentrations were likely related to the formation of a low mixing layer under the conditions of low temperatures, low wind speeds, high relative humidities and limited intensity of solar radiation.

Publication
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS

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