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TES observations of the interannual variability of PAN over Northern Eurasia and the relationship to springtime fires
Author(s) -
Zhu Liye,
Fischer Emily V.,
Payne Vivienne H.,
Worden John R.,
Jiang Zhe
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl065328
Subject(s) - peroxyacetyl nitrate , troposphere , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , climatology , atmosphere (unit) , boreal , northern hemisphere , meteorology , geology , combustion , geography , nox , chemistry , paleontology , organic chemistry
Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry through its impact on remote oxidant and nitrogen budgets. PAN is formed rapidly in boreal fire plumes through the oxidation of short‐lived volatile organic compounds in the presence of nitrogen oxide radicals. Here we present new satellite observations of PAN from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) over northern Eurasia for April 2006–2010. We observe large interannual variability in TES PAN observations, and we show that fires are one source of this variability using (1) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Mean Fire Radiative Power observations and (2) Hybrid Single‐Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory backward trajectories. We also show that cold springtime temperatures and enhanced vertical mixing in the lower free troposphere over northeastern Eurasia likely played a role in the detection of PAN from TES in April 2006 in this region.