Biomass burning in Central Africa or lightning in West Africa may serve as mechanisms to enhance tropospheric ozone (O₃) during Northern Hemisphere summer (JJA) in Equatorial latitudes. During the summer of 2006, ozonesondes launched from the Ronald H. Brown research cruise in equatorial latitudes (5°N–5°S) along 23°W showed elevated concentrations of O₃ in the middle and upper troposphere. The total column ozone (TCO) increased by a factor of 1.2 between Legs 1 (June 11–15) and Legs 2 (June 26–29) from 36.5 to 43.5 DU. Nearly 80% of the TCO ozone was found above 700 hPa and only 10% of the TCO was found between the surface and 850 hPa. Consequently this implies that two mechanisms are responsible for elevated O₃: (1) lightning associated with organized convective systems in West Africa which produced O₃ via NO_X, (2) a northward transport of biomass burning constituents from central Africa over land into regions of deep convection followed by the vertical transport of O₃ and O₃ precursors to the middle/upper troposphere. While O₃ and O₃ precursors are transported directly from Central Africa to the tropical Eastern Atlantic near the surface, the stability of the atmosphere inhibits vertical transport to the free troposphere.