Observation of enhanced ozone in an electrically active storm over Socorro, NM: Implications for ozone production from corona discharges

Abstract

Enhancements in ozone were observed between about 3 and 10 km altitude within an electrically active storm in central New Mexico. Measurements from satellite sensors and ground‐based radar show cloud top pressures between 300 and 150 mb in the vicinity of an ozonesonde launched from Socorro, NM, and heavy precipitation with radar reflectivities exceeding 50 dBZ. Data from a lightning mapping array and a surface electric field mill show a large amount of electrical activity within this thunderstorm. The observed ozone enhancements are large (50% above the mean) and could have resulted from a number of possible processes, including the advection of polluted air from the urban environments of El Paso and Juarez, photochemical production by lightning‐generated NOx from aged thunderstorm outflow, downward mixing of stratospheric air, or local production from within the thunderstorm. We find that a large fraction of the ozone enhancement is consistent with local production from corona discharges, either from cloud particles or by corona associated with lightning. The implied global source of ozone from thunderstorm corona discharge is estimated to be 110 Tg O3 a−1 with a range between 40 and 180 Tg O3 a−1. This value is about 21% as large as the estimated ozone production rate from lightning NOx, and about 3% as large as the total chemical production rate of tropospheric ozone. Thus while the estimated corona‐induced production of ozone may be significant on local scales, it is unlikely to be as important to the global ozone budget as other sources.

Influence of corona discharge on the ozone budget in the tropical free troposphere: a case study of deep convection during GABRIEL

“…The lower limit of that range is based on the maximum contribution of dynamical processes (50.0 ppbv) and photochemical production (1.4 ppbv) to the observed outflow mixing ratio leading to only 6.9 % of unaccounted ozone. Compared to known values in the literature, our corresponding lower limit of the value for the rate of O 3 flash −1 is of the same order of magnitude but nevertheless a factor of 5 higher compared to the values proposed by Minschwaner et al (2008). Following the maximum contribution of dynamical processes and using the maximum observed NO value of 231 pptv in the convective outflow, the contribution of photochemical ozone production enhances to 3.1 ppbv and the lower limit for the range of lightning O 3 decreases to 9.89 × 10 26 molecules O 3 flash −1 .…”

“…In these studies no yield of O 3 molecules per flash is given. A study by Hill et al (1988) states a range of 0.2-2.0 × 10 27 molecules O 3 per flash whereas Minschwaner et al (2008) showed a significant amount of ozone formed by corona discharge in a thunderstorm cloud with an estimated value of 0.35-1.6 × 10 27 molecules O 3 per flash.…”

“…Hill et al (1988) estimated the production of NO and ozone as a function of energy dissipation by corona discharge, yielding a rate of (1.4 ± 0.7) × 10 16 molecules NO per joule and (4 ± 2) × 10 17 molecules O 3 per joule, respectively. Minschwaner et al (2008) suggested a production rate of 1 (0.35-1.6) × 10 27 O 3 molecules per flash from balloon measurements in an electrically active thunderstorm in New Mexico, USA. Corona discharge in the vicinity of a lightning flash can be an additional regional source of ozone in convectively active areas.…”

Analysis of cloud-to-ground lightning and its relation with surface pollutants over Taipei, Taiwan

“…Such increase in NO x and O 3 concentration on days with lightning strongly supports the transport phenomena of NO x and O 3 from the upper or middle troposphere to the lower troposphere by downdraft of the thunderstorm during its dissipation stage. It is worth mentioning in this context that only a few studies about lower surface variation of ozone and NO x associated with thunderstorms are found in the literature (Ott et al, 2010;Minschwaner et al, 2008;Middey and Chaudhuri, 2013). Minschwaner et al (2008), after conducting a study in central New Mexico, indicated a large enhancement in ozone (50 % above the mean) between about 3 and 10 km altitude within an electrically active storm and inferred that the observed ozone enhancements could have resulted from a number of possible processes, including the advection of polluted air from the urban environments, photochemical production by lightning-generated NO x from aged thunderstorm outflow, downward mixing of stratospheric air, or local production from within the thunderstorm.…”

A global tropospheric ozone climatology from trajectory-mapped ozone soundings

“…In particular, it is less in the boundary layer and in the tropics (von Kuhlmann et al, 2003;Roelofs and Lelieveld, 1997 timescales of a few days (e.g. Mao et al, 2006;Palmer et al, 2013), and lightning can produce ozone both directly (Minschwaner et al, 2008) and via lightning-generated NOx (e.g. Morris et al, 2010;Cooper et al, 2006), so this assumption can be violated in certain circumstances.…”