scholarly journals Global impacts of gas-phase chemistry-aerosol interactions on direct radiative forcing by anthropogenic aerosols and ozone

Author(s):  
Hong Liao
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Sherwen ◽  
J. A. Schmidt ◽  
M. J. Evans ◽  
L. J. Carpenter ◽  
K. Großmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a simulation of the global composition of the troposphere which includes the chemistry of halogens (Cl, Br, I). Building on previous work within the GEOS-Chem model we include emissions of inorganic iodine from the oceans, anthropogenic and biogenic sources of halogenated gases, gas phase chemistry, and a parameterised approach to heterogeneous halogen chemistry. Consistent with Schmidt et al. (2016) we do not include sea-salt de-bromination. Observations of halogen radicals (BrO, IO) are sparse but the model has some skill in reproducing these. IO shows both high and low biases in different datasets, BrO concentrations though appear to be modelled low. Comparisons to the very sparse observations dataset of reactive Cl species suggests the model represents a lower limit on impacts due to likely underestimates in emissions and therefore burdens. Inclusion of Cl, Br, I results in a general improvement in simulation of ozone (O3) concentrations, except in polar regions where the model now underestimates O3 concentrations. Halogen chemistry reduces the global tropospheric O3 burden by ∼ 15 %, with the O3 lifetime reducing from 26 days to 22 days. Global mean OH concentrations of 1.34 ×106 molecules cm−3 are 4.5 % lower than in a simulation without halogens, leading to an increase in the CH4 lifetime (6.5 %) due to OH oxidation from 7.48 years to 7.96 years. Oxidation of CH4 by Cl is small (∼ 1 %) but Cl oxidation of other VOCs (ethane, acetone, and propane) can be significant (∼ 9–18 %). Oxidation of VOCs by Br is smaller, representing 2.1 % of the loss of acetaldehyde and 0.6 % of the loss of formaldehyde.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 12239-12271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Sherwen ◽  
Johan A. Schmidt ◽  
Mat J. Evans ◽  
Lucy J. Carpenter ◽  
Katja Großmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a simulation of the global present-day composition of the troposphere which includes the chemistry of halogens (Cl, Br, I). Building on previous work within the GEOS-Chem model we include emissions of inorganic iodine from the oceans, anthropogenic and biogenic sources of halogenated gases, gas phase chemistry, and a parameterised approach to heterogeneous halogen chemistry. Consistent with Schmidt et al. (2016) we do not include sea-salt debromination. Observations of halogen radicals (BrO, IO) are sparse but the model has some skill in reproducing these. Modelled IO shows both high and low biases when compared to different datasets, but BrO concentrations appear to be modelled low. Comparisons to the very sparse observations dataset of reactive Cl species suggest the model represents a lower limit of the impacts of these species, likely due to underestimates in emissions and therefore burdens. Inclusion of Cl, Br, and I results in a general improvement in simulation of ozone (O3) concentrations, except in polar regions where the model now underestimates O3 concentrations. Halogen chemistry reduces the global tropospheric O3 burden by 18.6 %, with the O3 lifetime reducing from 26 to 22 days. Global mean OH concentrations of 1.28  ×  106 molecules cm−3 are 8.2 % lower than in a simulation without halogens, leading to an increase in the CH4 lifetime (10.8 %) due to OH oxidation from 7.47 to 8.28 years. Oxidation of CH4 by Cl is small (∼  2 %) but Cl oxidation of other VOCs (ethane, acetone, and propane) can be significant (∼  15–27 %). Oxidation of VOCs by Br is smaller, representing 3.9 % of the loss of acetaldehyde and 0.9 % of the loss of formaldehyde.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Ming Fung ◽  
Colette L. Heald ◽  
Jesse H. Kroll ◽  
Siyuan Wang ◽  
Duseong S. Jo ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aerosol indirect radiative forcing (IRF), which characterizes how aerosols alter cloud formation and properties, is very sensitive to the preindustrial (PI) aerosol burden. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS), emitted from the ocean, is a dominant natural precursor of non-sea-salt sulfate in the PI and pristine present-day (PD) atmospheres. Here we revisit the atmospheric oxidation chemistry of DMS, particularly under pristine conditions, and its impact on aerosol IRF. Based on previous laboratory studies, we expand the simplified DMS oxidation scheme used in the Community Atmospheric Model version 6 with chemistry (CAM6-chem) to capture the OH-addition pathway as well as the H-abstraction pathway and the associated isomerization branch. These additional oxidation channels of DMS produce several stable intermediate compounds, e.g., methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and hydroperoxymethyl thioformate (HPMTF), delay the formation of sulfate, and hence, alter the spatial distribution of sulfate aerosol and radiative impacts. The expanded scheme improves the agreement between modeled and observed concentrations of DMS, MSA, HPMTF, and sulfate over most marine regions based on the NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom), the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA), and the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) measurements. We find that the global HPMTF burden, as well as the burden of sulfate produced from DMS oxidation are relatively insensitive to the assumed isomerization rate, but the burden of HPMTF is very sensitive to a potential additional cloud loss. We find that global sulfate burden under PI and PD emissions increase to 412 Gg-S (+29 %) and 582 Gg-S (+8.8 %), respectively, compared to the standard simplified DMS oxidation scheme. The resulting annual mean global PD direct radiative effect of DMS-derived sulfate alone is −0.11  W m−2. The enhanced PI sulfate produced via the gas-phase chemistry updates alone dampens the aerosol IRF as anticipated (−2.2 W m−2 in standard versus −1.7 W m−2 with updated gas-phase chemistry). However, high clouds in the tropics and low clouds in the Southern Ocean appear particularly sensitive to the additional aqueous-phase pathways, counteracting this change (−2.3 W m−2). This study confirms the sensitivity of aerosol IRF to the PI aerosol loading, as well as the need to better understand the processes controlling aerosol formation in the PI atmosphere and the cloud response to these changes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1209-1225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph A. Keller ◽  
Mat J. Evans

Abstract. Atmospheric chemistry models are a central tool to study the impact of chemical constituents on the environment, vegetation and human health. These models are numerically intense, and previous attempts to reduce the numerical cost of chemistry solvers have not delivered transformative change. We show here the potential of a machine learning (in this case random forest regression) replacement for the gas-phase chemistry in atmospheric chemistry transport models. Our training data consist of 1 month (July 2013) of output of chemical conditions together with the model physical state, produced from the GEOS-Chem chemistry model v10. From this data set we train random forest regression models to predict the concentration of each transported species after the integrator, based on the physical and chemical conditions before the integrator. The choice of prediction type has a strong impact on the skill of the regression model. We find best results from predicting the change in concentration for long-lived species and the absolute concentration for short-lived species. We also find improvements from a simple implementation of chemical families (NOx = NO + NO2). We then implement the trained random forest predictors back into GEOS-Chem to replace the numerical integrator. The machine-learning-driven GEOS-Chem model compares well to the standard simulation. For ozone (O3), errors from using the random forests (compared to the reference simulation) grow slowly and after 5 days the normalized mean bias (NMB), root mean square error (RMSE) and R2 are 4.2 %, 35 % and 0.9, respectively; after 30 days the errors increase to 13 %, 67 % and 0.75, respectively. The biases become largest in remote areas such as the tropical Pacific where errors in the chemistry can accumulate with little balancing influence from emissions or deposition. Over polluted regions the model error is less than 10 % and has significant fidelity in following the time series of the full model. Modelled NOx shows similar features, with the most significant errors occurring in remote locations far from recent emissions. For other species such as inorganic bromine species and short-lived nitrogen species, errors become large, with NMB, RMSE and R2 reaching >2100 % >400 % and <0.1, respectively. This proof-of-concept implementation takes 1.8 times more time than the direct integration of the differential equations, but optimization and software engineering should allow substantial increases in speed. We discuss potential improvements in the implementation, some of its advantages from both a software and hardware perspective, its limitations, and its applicability to operational air quality activities.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 1391-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lanza ◽  
D. Dalle Nogare ◽  
P. Canu

ChemInform ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (30) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos N. Eberlin ◽  
Daniella Vasconcellos Augusti ◽  
Rodinei Augusti

Author(s):  
Ahmed Al Shoaibi ◽  
Anthony M. Dean

Pyrolysis experiments of isobutane, isobutylene, and 1-butene were performed over a temperature range of 550–750°C and a pressure of ∼0.8 atm. The residence time was ∼5 s. The fuel conversion and product selectivity were analyzed at these temperatures. The pyrolysis experiments were performed to simulate the gas-phase chemistry that occurs in the anode channel of a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The experimental results confirm that molecular structure has a substantial impact on pyrolysis kinetics. The experimental data show considerable amounts of C5 and higher species (∼2.8 mole % with isobutane at 750°C, ∼7.5 mole % with isobutylene at 737.5°C, and ∼7.4 mole % with 1-butene at 700°C). The C5+ species are likely deposit precursors. The results confirm that hydrocarbon gas-phase kinetics have substantial impact on a SOFC operation.


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