Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 10 3 2010 10.5194/acp-10-895-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/895/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/895/2010/acp-10-895-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/895/2010/acp-10-895-2010.pdf 895 907 2010-02-01 What caused extreme ozone concentrations over Cotonou in December 2005? A. Minga V. Thouret valerie.thouret@aero.obs-mip.fr M. Saunois C. Delon D. Serça C. Mari B. Sauvage A. Mariscal M. Leriche B. Cros Université de Toulouse, UPS, LA (Laboratoire d'Aérologie), 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France CNRS, LA (Laboratoire d'Aérologie), UMR 5560, 31400 Toulouse, France Faculté des Sciences, Université Marien NGouabi, BP 2702 Brazzaville, Congo now at: LGIT (Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Technophysique), BP 53, 38 041 Grenoble, Cedex 09, France This paper reports the first record of extreme ozone measurements in Africa. As part of the AMMA program, the ozone vertical profile recorded on 20 December over Cotonou presents exceptionally high ozone concentrations with up to 295 ppb at 1 km altitude. Retroplumes from the Flexpart model show that the air masses sampled at 1 km over Cotonou on this day came from the burning area situated north-east of Cotonou and passed over Lagos, Nigeria, which is highly impacted by urban pollution. We used the Master Mechanism box model to simulate the chemical composition of the plume during its transit. We find that neither the biomass burning emissions of ozone precursors nor additional urban emissions from Lagos are high enough to simulate more than 120–150 ppb of ozone. The only way to reach almost 300 ppb of ozone within a few hours is to feed the air mass with large amounts of reactive VOCs as those recorded in the vicinity of petrochemical area. 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