Analysis of Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide in the Northeast Asia from MOPITT

The Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument is an eight-channel gas correlation radiometer that launched on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra spacecraft in 1999. Its main objectives are to measure carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4) concentrations in the troposphere. This study analyzes tropospheric carbon monoxide distributions using MOPITT data and compare with ozone distributions in Northeast Asia. In general, seasonal CO variations are characterized by a peak in spring and decrease in summer. Also, this study revealed that the seasonal cycles of CO are maximum in spring and minimum in summer with average concentrations ranging from 118ppbv to 170ppbv. The monthly average of CO shows a similar profile to those of O3. This fact clearly indicates that the high concentration of CO in spring is caused by two possible causes: the photochemical CO production in the troposphere, or the transport of the CO in the northeast Asia. The CO and $O_3$ seasonal cycles in the Northeast Asia are influenced extensively by the seasonal exchange of the different types of air mass due to the Asian monsoon. The continental air masses contain high concentrations of $O_3$ and CO due to higher continental background concentrations and sometimes due to the contribution of regional pollution. In summer the transport pattern is reversed. The Pacific marine air masses prevail over Korea, so that the marine air masses bring low concentrations of CO and $O_3$, which tend to give the apparent minimum in summer.