Air Mass Transport to the UTLS above the Tropical West Pacific

The Tropical West Pacific (TWP) is the key entry point of air into the stratosphere during Northern Hemispheric winter. Our previous work showed how transport to the TWP troposphere is modulated by the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, allowing transport of polluted air masses from tropical Asia during spring (Müller et al., 2023a, Müller et al. 2023b). Here, we present insights on air mass transport to the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) in this region using the ozone and relative humidity time series (2016-2023) from the Palau Atmospheric Observatory (PAO), located in the center of the tropical warm pool (7°N, 134°E). We further give an overview of all observations performed at the PAO during the ACCLIP summer campaign 2022, including ozone, CFH and COBALD sonde and lidar measurements. In analogy to Müller et al. 2023b, Lagrangian backward trajectories calculated are used to identify transport from remote locations. The time series already allows some interpretation regarding interannual variability mainly to the ENSO cycle. Here, we show anomalies during the 2016 strong El Nino and potentially the El Nino in the upcoming winter 2023. The PAO proves to be an excellent site to study UTLS composition and dynamics in the TWP region.