The potential of using a combination of in-situ, campaign and flight data to analyse Ozone across data sparse regions in Africa

Abstract

Air pollution and climate change threaten Africa’s development because of their negative impacts on human health, well-being and productivity. Air pollution and climate change reduce agricultural productivity, for example, with implications for food and nutritional security. Two of the biggest issues for African countries are the lack of data on the emissions causing air pollution and climate change, and inadequate policy and implementation capacity. Countries need this data to plan policies that can reduce air pollution and deliver national development priorities and climate goals. Ozone as an anthropogenic greenhouse gas affects the climate beyond increased warming due to its impact on evaporation rates, cloud formation,precipitation levels and atmospheric circulation..  Combustion of fossil fuels is one of the principal processes that release the gaseous precursor pollutants that react to form O3, which is a major factor in Africa, as most populations on the continent are dependent on fossil and  other fuels for heating and cooking,also, emissions from vehicle exhausts and electric generators with unknown ozone concentrations (Ihedike et al, 2023)  . Furthermore, along with the presence of the precursor gases, many meteorological conditions promote the formation of O3 (Guar et al, 2014). The formation, transport, chemical destruction, deposition and atmospheric lifetime of O3 will determine its concentration in any given area.Aircrafts  and satellites provide a global-scale view on tropospheric ozone and its precursors, with different types of sensors being sensitive to different parts of the atmosphere. They help in improving forecasting of weather conditions and more recently in improving   predictions of air quality. Data from these aircraft and satellite  sensors are complementary to more detailed and more precise data sets . A wide variety of trends and variations in tropospheric ozone were reported by aircraft sensors in the Tropospheric Assessment Report (TOAR Phase I) in the 1990s (Gaudel 2018).The distribution of the tropospheric ozone over the western Pacific Ocean has also been observed during aircraft experiments, but in Africa there has been little information on these data findings and as well their potential limitations. However, this project intends to address these knowledge gaps. Data from these aircraft sensors are complementary to more detailed and more precise in-situ data that are spatially and temporally limited in which this study intends to address. Prelimanary results from the Working Group will be presented, as well as challenges and limitations of data aquisition and data represntation, in data scarce regions.