North American isoprene influence on intercontinental ozone pollution

Fiore, Arlene M.; Levy, H.; Jaffe, Daniel A.

doi:10.5194/acp-11-1697-2011

Cited by 57 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Fiore et al (2010) showed that interannual variability in isoprene emissions, which can be as large as 20-30 % in summer months Müller et al, 2008), can influence seasonally averaged PAN mixing ratios downwind. However this impact is most pronounced in summer months when isoprene emissions are largest, and it is not likely to have driven the differences we observed during spring (Fiore et al, 2011(Fiore et al, , 2010.…”

Section: Other Potential Natural Drivers Of Pan Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 86%

Free tropospheric peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone at Mount Bachelor: potential causes of variability and timescale for trend detection

2011

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Abstract. We report on the first multi-year springtime measurements of PAN in the free troposphere over the US Pacific Northwest. The measurements were made at the summit of Mount Bachelor (43.979 • N, 121.687 • W; 2.7 km a.s.l.) by gas chromatography with electron capture detector during spring 2008, 2009 and 2010. This dataset provides an observational estimate of the month-to-month and springtime interannual variability of PAN mixing ratios in this region. Springtime seasonal mean (1 April-20 May) PAN mixing ratios at Mount Bachelor varied from 100 pptv to 152 pptv. The standard deviation of the three seasonal means was 28 pptv, 21 % of the springtime mean. We summarize the interannual variability in three factors expected to drive PAN variability: biomass burning, transport efficiency over the central and eastern Pacific, and transport temperature. Zhang et al. (2008) used the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model to show that rising Asian NO x emissions from 2000 to 2006 resulted in a relatively larger positive trend in PAN than O 3 over western North America. However the model results only considered monotonic changes in Asian emissions, whereas other factors, such as biomass burning, isoprene emissions or climate change can induce greater variability in the atmospheric concentrations and thus extend the time needed for trend detection. We combined the observed variability in PAN and O 3 at Mount Bachelor with a range of possible future trends in these species to determine the observational requirements to detect such trends. Though the relative increase in PAN is expected to be larger than that of O 3 , PAN is more variable. If PAN mixing ratios are currently increasing at a rate of 4 % per year due to rising Asian Correspondence to: E. V. Fischer (efischer@atmos.washington.edu) emissions, we would detect a trend with 13 years of measurements at a site like Mount Bachelor. If the corresponding trend in O 3 is 1 % per year, the trends in O 3 and PAN would be detected on approximately the same timescale.

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Section: Other Potential Natural Drivers Of Pan Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 86%

Free tropospheric peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone at Mount Bachelor: potential causes of variability and timescale for trend detection

2011

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“…The impact of North American (NA) isoprene on European ozone has been assessed, and it has been shown that future increases in NA isoprene emissions could offset decreases in EU surface O 3 resulting from controls on NA anthropogenic emissions (Fiore et al, 2011). Archibald et al (2011) showed that there is a significant impact of mechanism uncertainties on the global impact of isoprene chemistry on ozone.…”

Section: Role Of Biogenics In the Formation Of Ozonementioning

confidence: 99%

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Ozone holds a certain fascination in atmospheric science. It is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, central to tropospheric oxidation chemistry, yet harmful to human and ecosystem health as well as being an important greenhouse gas. It is not emitted into the atmosphere but is a byproduct of the very oxidation chemistry it largely initiates. Much effort is focused on the reduction of surface levels of ozone owing to its health and vegetation impacts, but recent efforts to achieve reductions in exposure at a country scale have proved difficult to achieve owing to increases in background ozone at the zonal hemispheric scale. There is also a growing realisation that the role of ozone as a short-lived climate pollutant could be important in integrated air quality climate change mitigation. This review examines current understanding of the processes regulating tropospheric ozone at global to local scales from both measurements and models. It takes the view that knowledge across the scales is important for dealing with air quality and climate change in a synergistic manner. The review shows that there remain a number of clear challenges for ozone such as explaining surface trends, incorporating new chemical understanding, ozone-climate coupling, and a better assessment of impacts. There is a clear and present need to treat ozone across the range of scales, a transboundary issue, but with an emphasis on the hemispheric scales. New observational opportunities are offered both by satellites and small sensors that bridge the scales.

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“…Simpson, 1995;Roberts et al, 2006; or the composition of the global troposphere (e.g. von Kuhlmann et al, 2004;Folberth et al, 2006;Fiore et al, 2011). By exploiting the sensitivity studies described in Sect.…”

Section: The Influence Of Bvoc Emissions On Global Tropospheric Compomentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the uncertainty in simulating global tropospheric composition due to the variability in global emission estimates of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds

2013

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Abstract. The emission of organic compounds from biogenic processes acts as an important source of trace gases in remote regions away from urban conurbations, and is likely to become more important in future decades due to the further mitigation of anthropogenic emissions that affect air quality and climate forcing. In this study we examine the contribution of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) towards global tropospheric composition using the global 3-D chemistry transport model TM5 and the recently developed modified CB05 chemical mechanism. By comparing regional BVOC emission estimates we show that biogenic processes act as dominant sources for many regions and exhibit a large variability in the annually and seasonally integrated emission fluxes. By performing sensitivity studies we find that the contribution of BVOC species containing between 1 to 3 carbon atoms has an impact on the resident mixing ratios of tropospheric O3 and CO, accounting for ~2.5% and ~10.8% of the simulated global distribution, respectively. This is approximately a third of the cumulative effect introduced by isoprene and the monoterpenes. By examining an ensemble of 3-D global chemistry transport simulations which adopt different global BVOC emission inventories we determine the associated uncertainty introduced towards simulating the composition of the troposphere for the year 2000. By comparing the model ensemble values against a composite of atmospheric measurements we show that the effects on tropospheric O3 are limited to the lower troposphere (with an uncertainty between −2% to 10%), whereas that for tropospheric CO extends up to the upper troposphere (with an uncertainty of between 10 to 45%). Comparing the mixing ratios for low molecular weight alkenes in TM5 against surface measurements taken in Europe implies that the cumulative emission estimates are too low, regardless of the chosen BVOC inventory. This variability in the global distribution of CO due to BVOC emissions introduces an associated uncertainty in the tropospheric CO burden of 11.4%, which impacts strongly on the oxidative capacity of the troposphere, introducing an uncertainty in the atmospheric lifetime of the greenhouse gas CH4 of ~3.3%. This study thus identifies the necessity of placing further constraints on non-CH4 global biogenic emission estimates in large-scale global atmospheric chemistry models.

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North American isoprene influence on intercontinental ozone pollution

Cited by 57 publications

References 72 publications

Free tropospheric peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone at Mount Bachelor: potential causes of variability and timescale for trend detection

Free tropospheric peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone at Mount Bachelor: potential causes of variability and timescale for trend detection

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

Quantifying the uncertainty in simulating global tropospheric composition due to the variability in global emission estimates of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds

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