scholarly journals Modelling the impact of possible snowpack emissions of O(3P) and NO2 on photochemistry in the South Pole boundary layer

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 268 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Hamer ◽  
D. E. Shallcross ◽  
A. Yabushita ◽  
M. Kawasaki

Environmental context. The study of surface photochemical ozone production on the Antarctic continent has direct relevance to climate change and general air quality and is scientifically noteworthy given the otherwise pristine nature of this environmental region. The identification of possible direct ozone emissions from snow surfaces and their contribution to the already active photochemical pollution present there represents a unique physical phenomenon. This process could have wider global significance for other snow-covered regions and therefore for global climate change. Abstract. O(3P) emissions due to photolysis of nitrate were recently identified from ice surfaces doped with nitric acid. O(3P) atoms react directly with molecular oxygen to yield ozone. Therefore, these results may have direct bearing on photochemical activity monitored at the South Pole, a site already noted for elevated summertime surface ozone concentrations. NO2 is also produced via the photolysis of nitrate and the firn air contains elevated levels of NO2, which will lead to direct emission of NO2. A photochemical box model was used to probe what effect O(3P) and NO2 emissions have on ozone concentrations within the South Pole boundary layer. The results suggest that these emissions could account for a portion of the observed ozone production at the South Pole and may explain the observed upward fluxes of ozone identified there.

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.S. Boxe ◽  
P.D. Hamer ◽  
W. Ford ◽  
M. Hoffmann ◽  
D.E. Shallcross

AbstractIt is well established that the reaction of HO2 with NO plays a central role in atmospheric chemistry, by way of OH/HO2 recycling and reduction of ozone depletion by HOx cycles in the stratosphere and through ozone production in the troposphere. Utilizing a photochemical box model, we investigate the impact of the recently observed HNO3 production channel (HO2+NO → HNO3) on NOx (NO + NO2), HOx (OH + HO2), HNO3, and O3 concentrations in the boundary layer at the South Pole, Antarctica. Our simulations exemplify decreases in peak O3, NO, NO2, and OH and an increase in HNO3. Also, mean OH is in better agreement with observations, while worsening the agreement with O3, HO2, and HNO3 concentrations observed at the South Pole. The reduced concentrations of NOx are consistent with expected decreases in atmospheric NOx lifetime as a result of increased sequestration of NOx into HNO3. Although we show that the inclusion of the novel HNO3 production channel brings better agreement of OH with field measurements, the modelled ozone and HNO3 are worsened, and the changes in NOx lifetime imply that snowpack NOx emissions and snowpack nitrate recycling must be re-evaluated.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 7705-7726 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Langner ◽  
M. Engardt ◽  
C. Andersson

Abstract. The impact of climate change and changes in ozone precursor emissions on summer surface ozone in Europe were studied using a regional CTM over the period 1990 to 2100. Two different climate simulations under the SRES A1B scenario together with ozone precursor emission changes from the RCP4.5 scenario were used as model input. In southern Europe regional climate change leads to increasing surface ozone concentrations during April–September, but projected emission reductions in Europe have a stronger effect, resulting in net reductions of surface ozone concentrations. In northern Europe regional climate change decreases surface O3 and reduced emissions acts to further strengthen this trend also when including increasing hemispheric background concentrations, although on the British Isles the combined effect is an increase. Due to substantial decadal variability in the simulations it is important to study averages over sufficiently long time periods in order to be able to extract robust signals of climate change impacts on surface O3 concentrations.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Legrand ◽  
S. Preunkert ◽  
J. Savarino ◽  
M. M. Frey ◽  
A. Kukui ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface ozone has been measured since 2004 at the coastal East Antarctic site of Dumont d'Urville (DDU) and since 2007 at the Concordia station located on the high East Antarctic plateau. This paper discusses long-term trends, seasonal and diurnal cycles, as well as inter-annual summer variability observed at these two East Antarctic sites. At Concordia, near surface ozone data were complemented by balloon soundings and compared to similar measurements done at the South Pole. The DDU record is compared to those obtained at the coastal site of Syowa also located in East Antarctica, as well as the coastal sites of Neumayer and Halley, both located at the coast of the Weddell Sea in West Antarctica. Surface ozone mixing ratios exhibit very similar seasonal cycle at Concordia and the South Pole. However, in summer the diurnal cycle and the vertical distribution of ozone above the snow surface are different at the two sites with a drop of ozone in the afternoon at Concordia and not at the South Pole, and a far well-mixed rich ozone layer within the lower 250 m at Concordia than at the South Pole during sunlight hours. These differences are related to different solar radiation and wind regimes encountered at these two inland sites. DDU appears to be the coastal site where the impact of the late winter/spring bromine chemistry is the weakest, but where the impact of NOx snow emissions from the high Antarctic plateau is the highest. The highest impact of the bromine chemistry is seen at Halley and Neumayer, and to a lesser extent at Syowa. These three sites are only weakly impacted by the NOx chemistry and the net ozone production occurring on the high Antarctic plateau. The differences in late winter/spring are attributed to the abundance of sea-ice offshore the sites whereas those in summer are related to the topography of East Antarctica that promotes the katabatic flow bringing oxidant-rich inland air masses to the site. There appears to be a decreasing trend in summer at the two East Antarctic sites of Concordia and DDU over the most recent period (2004/2007–2014). Further researches including continuing monitoring are needed at these two sites to better separate effect of synoptic transport from possible change of NOx snow emissions in response to change of the stratospheric ozone layer.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 10097-10105 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Langner ◽  
M. Engardt ◽  
C. Andersson

Abstract. The impact of climate change and changes in ozone precursor emission on summer surface ozone in Europe was studied using a regional CTM over the period 1990 to 2100. Two different climate simulations under the SRES A1B scenario together with ozone precursor emission changes from the RCP4.5 scenario were used as model input. In southern Europe regional climate change leads to increasing surface ozone concentrations during April–September, but projected emission reductions in Europe have a stronger effect, resulting in net reductions of surface ozone concentrations. In northern Europe regional climate change decreases surface O3 and reduced European emissions acts to further strengthen this trend also when including increasing hemispheric background concentrations. The European O3 precursor emission reductions in RCP4.5 are substantial and it remains to be seen if these reductions can be achieved. There is substantial decadal variability in the simulations forced by climate variability which is important to consider when looking at changes in surface O3 concentrations, especially until the first half of the 21st century. In order to account for changes in background O3 future regional model studies should couple global (hemispheric) and regional CTMs forced by a consistent set of meteorological and precursor emission data.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 8053-8069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Legrand ◽  
Susanne Preunkert ◽  
Joël Savarino ◽  
Markus M. Frey ◽  
Alexandre Kukui ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface ozone has been measured since 2004 at the coastal East Antarctic site of Dumont d'Urville (DDU), and since 2007 at the Concordia station located on the high East Antarctic plateau. This paper discusses long-term changes, seasonal and diurnal cycles, as well as inter-annual summer variability observed at these two East Antarctic sites. At Concordia, near-surface ozone data were complemented by balloon soundings and compared to similar measurements done at the South Pole. The DDU record is compared to those obtained at the coastal site of Syowa, also located in East Antarctica, as well as the coastal sites of Neumayer and Halley, both located on the coast of the Weddell Sea in West Antarctica. Surface ozone mixing ratios exhibit very similar seasonal cycles at Concordia and the South Pole. However, in summer the diurnal cycle of ozone is different at the two sites with a drop of ozone in the afternoon at Concordia but not at the South Pole. The vertical distribution of ozone above the snow surface also differs. When present, the ozone-rich layer located near the ground is better mixed and deeper at Concordia (up to 400 m) than at the South Pole during sunlight hours. These differences are related to different solar radiation and wind regimes encountered at these two inland sites. DDU appears to be the coastal site where the impact of the late winter/spring bromine chemistry is the weakest, but where the impact of elevated ozone levels caused by NOx snow emissions from the high Antarctic plateau is the highest. The highest impact of the bromine chemistry is seen at Halley and Neumayer, and to a lesser extent at Syowa. These three sites are only weakly impacted by the NOx chemistry and the net ozone production occurring on the high Antarctic plateau. The differences in late winter/spring are attributed to the abundance of sea ice offshore from the sites, whereas those in summer are related to the topography of East Antarctica that promotes the katabatic flow bringing oxidant-rich inland air masses to the site. There appears to be a decreasing change in summer surface ozone at the two East Antarctic sites of Concordia and DDU over the most recent period (2004–2014 and 2007–2014). Further research, including continued monitoring, is needed at these two sites to better separate the effect of synoptic transport from possible change of NOx snow emissions in response to recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer leading to penetration of more UV radiation to the surface.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Yuan Xu ◽  
Jieming Chou ◽  
Fan Yang ◽  
Mingyang Sun ◽  
Weixing Zhao ◽  
...  

Quantitatively assessing the spatial divergence of the sensitivity of crop yield to climate change is of great significance for reducing the climate change risk to food production. We use socio-economic and climatic data from 1981 to 2015 to examine how climate variability led to variation in yield, as simulated by an economy–climate model (C-D-C). The sensitivity of crop yield to the impact of climate change refers to the change in yield caused by changing climatic factors under the condition of constant non-climatic factors. An ‘output elasticity of comprehensive climate factor (CCF)’ approach determines the sensitivity, using the yields per hectare for grain, rice, wheat and maize in China’s main grain-producing areas as a case study. The results show that the CCF has a negative trend at a rate of −0.84/(10a) in the North region, while a positive trend of 0.79/(10a) is observed for the South region. Climate change promotes the ensemble increase in yields, and the contribution of agricultural labor force and total mechanical power to yields are greater, indicating that the yield in major grain-producing areas mainly depends on labor resources and the level of mechanization. However, the sensitivities to climate change of different crop yields to climate change present obvious regional differences: the sensitivity to climate change of the yield per hectare for maize in the North region was stronger than that in the South region. Therefore, the increase in the yield per hectare for maize in the North region due to the positive impacts of climate change was greater than that in the South region. In contrast, the sensitivity to climate change of the yield per hectare for rice in the South region was stronger than that in the North region. Furthermore, the sensitivity to climate change of maize per hectare yield was stronger than that of rice and wheat in the North region, and that of rice was the highest of the three crop yields in the South region. Finally, the economy–climate sensitivity zones of different crops were determined by the output elasticity of the CCF to help adapt to climate change and prevent food production risks.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 12215-12231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. S. Stock ◽  
M. R. Russo ◽  
T. M. Butler ◽  
A. T. Archibald ◽  
M. G. Lawrence ◽  
...  

Abstract. We examine the effects of ozone precursor emissions from megacities on present-day air quality using the global chemistry–climate model UM-UKCA (UK Met Office Unified Model coupled to the UK Chemistry and Aerosols model). The sensitivity of megacity and regional ozone to local emissions, both from within the megacity and from surrounding regions, is important for determining air quality across many scales, which in turn is key for reducing human exposure to high levels of pollutants. We use two methods, perturbation and tagging, to quantify the impact of megacity emissions on global ozone. We also completely redistribute the anthropogenic emissions from megacities, to compare changes in local air quality going from centralised, densely populated megacities to decentralised, lower density urban areas. Focus is placed not only on how changes to megacity emissions affect regional and global NOx and O3, but also on changes to NOy deposition and to local chemical environments which are perturbed by the emission changes. The perturbation and tagging methods show broadly similar megacity impacts on total ozone, with the perturbation method underestimating the contribution partially because it perturbs the background chemical environment. The total redistribution of megacity emissions locally shifts the chemical environment towards more NOx-limited conditions in the megacities, which is more conducive to ozone production, and monthly mean surface ozone is found to increase up to 30% in megacities, depending on latitude and season. However, the displacement of emissions has little effect on the global annual ozone burden (0.12% change). Globally, megacity emissions are shown to contribute ~3% of total NOy deposition. The changes in O3, NOx and NOy deposition described here are useful for quantifying megacity impacts and for understanding the sensitivity of megacity regions to local emissions. The small global effects of the 100% redistribution carried out in this study suggest that the distribution of emissions on the local scale is unlikely to have large implications for chemistry–climate processes on the global scale.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Stähle ◽  
Monika Mayer ◽  
Christian Schmidt ◽  
Jessica Kult ◽  
Vinzent Klaus ◽  
...  

<p>As the production of ozone in surface air is determined by ambient temperature and by the prevalent chemical regime, a very different temperature dependence of ozone production emerges for nitrogen oxides (NO<sub>x</sub>) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) limited regions. In this study we evaluated the temperature sensitivity of ozone production for rural, suburban as well as urban sites in Austria on seasonal basis. The analysis is based on 30 years of observational data from Austrian monitoring networks for the time period 1990 – 2019. Reductions in precursor emissions as observed in 2020 in Austria due to the pandemic will be used to test the obtained results. Surface ozone, NO<sub>x</sub>, daily sums of global radiation and minimum daily temperature are used as covariates in our study. The observed NO<sub>x</sub> to VOC ratio at individual sites is variable over time due to changes in precursor emissions and/or the variability of meteorological parameters such as mixing layer height. At the site level we relate the temperature sensitivity of ozone production to the daily mean NO<sub>x</sub> mixing ratio and the daily minimum temperature. This information allows us to determine the impact of past/future temperature changes on surface ozone abundance in the context of reductions of NO<sub>x</sub> emissions and changing methane backgrounds.</p>


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