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Enhanced NO x by lightning in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere inferred from the UARS Global NO 2 measurements
Author(s) -
Zhang Renyi,
Sanger Neil T.,
Orville Richard E.,
Tie Xuexi,
Randel William,
Williams Earle R.
Publication year - 2000
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 - 10.1029/1999gl010903
Subject(s) - stratosphere , lightning (connector) , troposphere , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , atmosphere (unit) , occultation , mixing ratio , climatology , satellite , tropopause , meteorology , geology , physics , astronomy , power (physics) , quantum mechanics
This paper reveals a possible connection between lightning activity and the UARS NO 2 data on a global scale. NO 2 measured by the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is analyzed for the entire year of 1993 and compared to the seasonal and global lightning distributions inferred from the Optical Transient Detector (OTD). The results suggest a link between lightning activity and observed high levels of NO 2 in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Enhanced NO 2 mixing ratios significantly above the background level are consistently found in areas of elevated lightning activity. This relation is strongest in the tropical regions during the summer and spring months of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Moreover, the results show that background levels of NO 2 mixing ratios generally correspond to areas of little or no lightning activity.