Global and regional effects of the photochemistry of CH3O2NO2: evidence from ARCTAS

Using measurements from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) experiment, we show that methyl peroxy nitrate (CH 3 O 2 NO 2 ) is present in concentrations of ~5–15 pptv in the springtime arctic upper troposphere. We investigate the regio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Main Authors: Browne, E. C., Perring, A. E., Wooldridge, P. J., Apel, E., Hall, S. R., Huey, L. G., Mao, J., Spencer, K. M., Clair, J. M. St., Weinheimer, A. J., Wisthaler, A., Cohen, R. C.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4209-2011
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/4209/2011/
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Summary:Using measurements from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) experiment, we show that methyl peroxy nitrate (CH 3 O 2 NO 2 ) is present in concentrations of ~5–15 pptv in the springtime arctic upper troposphere. We investigate the regional and global effects of CH 3 O 2 NO 2 by including its chemistry in the GEOS-Chem 3-D global chemical transport model. We find that at temperatures below 240 K inclusion of CH 3 O 2 NO 2 chemistry results in decreases of up to ~20 % in NO x , ~20 % in N 2 O 5 , ~5 % in HNO 3 , ~2 % in ozone, and increases in methyl hydrogen peroxide of up to ~14 %. Larger changes are observed in biomass burning plumes lofted to high altitude. Additionally, by sequestering NO x at low temperatures, CH 3 O 2 NO 2 decreases the cycling of HO 2 to OH, resulting in a larger upper tropospheric HO 2 to OH ratio. These results may impact some estimates of lightning NO x sources as well as help explain differences between models and measurements of upper tropospheric composition.

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