[1] OH and HO 2 were measured with the Airborne Tropospheric Hydrogen Oxides Sensor (ATHOS) as part of a large measurement suite from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-A (INTEX-A). This mission, which was conducted mainly over North America and the western Atlantic Ocean in summer 2004, was an excellent test of atmospheric oxidation chemistry. The HOx results from INTEX-A are compared to those from previous campaigns and to results for other related measurements from INTEX-A. Throughout the troposphere, observed OH was generally 0.95 of modeled OH; below 8 km, observed HO 2 was generally 1.20 of modeled HO 2 . This observed-to-modeled comparison is similar to that for TRACE-P, another midlatitude study for which the median observed-to-modeled ratio was 1.08 for OH and 1.34 for HO 2 , and to that for PEM-TB, a tropical study for which the median observed-tomodeled ratio was 1.17 for OH and 0.97 for HO 2 . HO 2 behavior above 8 km was markedly different. The observed-to-modeled HO 2 ratio increased from $1.2 at 8 km to $3 at 11 km with the observed-to-modeled ratio correlating with NO. Above 8 km, the observed-to-modeled HO 2 and observed NO were both considerably greater than observations from previous campaigns. In addition, the observed-to-modeled HO 2 /OH, which is sensitive to cycling reactions between OH and HO 2 , increased from $1.5 at 8 km to almost 3.5 at 11 km. These discrepancies suggest a large unknown HO x source and additional reactants that cycle HO x from OH to HO 2 . In the continental planetary boundary layer, the observed-to-modeled OH ratio increased from 1 when isoprene was less than 0.1 ppbv to over 4 when isoprene was greater than 2 ppbv, suggesting that forests throughout the United States are emitting unknown HO x sources. Progress in resolving these discrepancies requires a focused research activity devoted to further examination of possible unknown OH sinks and HO x sources.
[1] Data obtained during the TRACE-P experiment is used to evaluate how well the CFORS/STEM-2K1 regional-scale chemical transport model is able to represent the aircraft observations. Thirty-one calculated trace gas and aerosol parameters are presented and compared to the in situ data. The regional model is shown to accurately predict many of the important features observed. The mean values of all the model parameters in the lowest 1 km are predicted within ±30% of the observed values. The correlation coefficients (R) for the meteorological parameters are found to be higher than those for the trace species. For example, for temperature, R > 0.98. Among the trace species, ethane, propane, and ozone show the highest values (0.8 < R < 0.9), followed by CO, SO 2 , and NO y . NO and NO 2 had the lowest values (R < 0.4). Analyses of pollutant transport into the Yellow Sea by frontal events are presented and illustrate the complex nature of outflow. Biomass burning from SE Asia is transported in the warm conveyor belt at altitudes above $2 km and at latitudes below 30N. Outflow of pollution emitted along the east coast of China in the postfrontal regions is typically confined to the lower $2 km and results in high concentrations with plume-like features in the Yellow Sea. During these situations the model underpredicts CO and black carbon (among other species). An analysis of ozone production in this region is also presented. In and around the highly industrialized regions of East Asia, where fossil fuel usage dominates, ozone is NMHC-limited. South of $30-35N, ozone production is NO x -limited, reflecting the high NMHC/NO x ratios due to the large contributions to the emissions from biomass burning, biogenics sources, and biofuel usage in central China and SE Asia.
Abstract. Data for the tropical upper troposphere (8-12 km, 20øN-20øS) collected during NASA's Pacific Exploratory Missions have been used to carry out a detailed examination of the photochemical processes controlling HOx (OH+HO2). Of particular significance is the availability of measurements of nonmethane hydrocarbons, oxygenated hydrocarbons (i.e., acetone, methanol, and ethanol) and peroxides (i.e., H202 and CH3OOH). These observations have provided constraints on model calculations permitting an assessment of the potential impact of these species on the levels of HOx, CH302, CH20, as well as ozone budget parameters. Sensitivity calculations using a time-dependent photochemical box model show that when constrained by measured values of the above oxygenated species, model estimated HOx levels are elevated relative to unconstrained calculations. The impact of constraining these species was found to increase with altitude, reflecting the systematic roll-off in water vapor mixing ratios with altitude. At 11-12 km, overall increases in HOx approached a factor of 2 with somewhat larger increases being found for gross and net photochemical production of ozone. While significant, the impact on HO• due to peroxides appears to be less than previously estimated. In particular, observations of elevated H202 levels may be more influenced by local photochemistry than by convective transport. Issues related to the uncertainty in high-altitude water vapor levels and the possibility of other contributing sources of HOx are discussed. Finally, it is noted that the uncertainties in gas kinetic rate coefficients at the low temperatures of the upper troposphere and as well as OH sensor calibrations should be areas of continued investigation.
This study examines the influence of photochemical processes on ozone distributions in the western North Pacific. The analysis is based on data generated during NASA's western Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-West A) during the fall of 1991. Ozone trends were best described in terms of two geographical domains: the western North Pacific rim (WNPR) and the western tropical North Pacific (WTNP). For both geographical regions, ozone photochemical destruction, D(O3), decreased more rapidly with altitude than did photochemical formation, F(O3). Thus the ozone tendency, P(O3), was typically found to be negative for z < 6 km and positive for z > 6-8 km. For nearly all altitudes and latitudes, observed nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) levels were shown to be of minor importance as ozone precursor species. Air parcel types producing the largest positive values of P(O3) included fresh continental boundary layer (BL) air and high-altitude (z > 7 km) parcels influenced by deep convection/lightning. Significant negative P(O3) values were found when encountering clean marine BL air or relatively clean lower free-tropospheric air. Photochemical destruction and formation fluxes for the Pacific rim region were found to exceed average values cited for marine dry deposition and stratospheric injection in the northern hemisphere by nearly a factor of 6. This region was also found to be in near balance with respect to column-integrated 03 photochemical production and destruction. By contrast, for the tropical regime column-integrated 03 showed photochemical destruction exceeding production by nearly 80%. Both transport of 03 rich midlatitude air into the tropics as well as very highaltitude (10-17 km) photochemical 03 production were proposed as possible additional sources that might explain this estimated deficit. Results from this study further suggest that during the fall time period, deep convection over Asia and Malaysia/Indonesia provided a significant source of high-altitude NOx to the western Pacific. Given that the high-altitude NOx lifetime is estimated at between 3 and 9 days, one would predict that this source added significantly to high altitude photochemical 03 formation over large areas of the western Pacific. When viewed in terms of strong seasonal westerly flow, its influence would potentially span a large part of the Pacific. 1980; Mahlman et al., 1980; Chameides and Tan, 1981; Logan et al., 1981]. The preponderance of evidence now suggests that both transport and photochemical factors play an important role in controlling the tropospheric distribution of ozone (see previous list of references). Of the two factors, however, the contribution from photochemical processes is generally viewed as having the larger uncertainty. This partially reflects the fact that the photochemical 2111 2112 DAVIS ET AL.: OZONE PHOTOCHEMISTRY IN THE WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC models from which global photochemical rates have been assessed are based on globally "estimated" distributions of the critical precursor species such as NO, CO, H20 , and ...
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