• Citer

Tropospheric nitric acid columns from the IASI satellite instrument interpreted with a chemical transport model: Implications for parameterizations of nitric oxide production by lightning

par Cooper, Matthew;Martin, R.V.;Wespes, Catherine ;Coheur, Pierre ;Clerbaux, Cathy ;Murray, Lee
Référence Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 119, 16, page (10068-10079)
Publication Publié, 2014

Article révisé par les pairs

• Détails
• Contenu

Résumé :

This paper interprets tropical tropospheric nitric acid columns from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite instrument with a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). GEOS-Chemand IASI columns generally agree over the tropical ocean to within 10%. However, the GEOS-Chem simulation underestimates IASI nitric acid over Southeast Asia by a factor of 2. The regional nitric acid bias is confirmed by comparing the GEOS-Chem simulation with additional satellite (High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder, Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer) and aircraft (Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM)-Tropics A and PEM-West B) observations of the middle and upper troposphere. This bias appears to be driven by the lightning NOx parameterization, both in terms of the magnitude of the NOx source and the ozone production efficiency of concentrated lightning NOx plumes. We tested a subgrid lightning plume parameterization and found that an ozone production efficiency of 15 mol/mol in lightning plumes over Southeast Asia in conjunction with an additional 0.5 Tg N would reduce the regional nitric acid bias from 92% to 6% without perturbing the rest of the tropics. Other sensitivity studies such as modified NOx yield per flash, increased altitude of lightning NOx emissions, decreased convective mass flux, or increased scavenging of nitric acid required unrealistic changes to reduce the bias.