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Reactive nitrogen budget during the NASA SONEX Mission
Author(s) -
Talbot R. W.,
Dibb J. E.,
Scheuer E. M.,
Kondo Y.,
Koike M.,
Singh H. B.,
Salas L. B.,
Fukui Y.,
Ballenthin J. O.,
Meads R. F.,
Miller T. M.,
Hunton D. E.,
Viggiano A. A.,
Blake D. R.,
Blake N. J.,
Atlas E.,
Flocke F.,
Jacob D. J.,
Jaegle L.
Publication year - 1999
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 - 10.1029/1999gl900589
Subject(s) - reactive nitrogen , troposphere , nitrogen , ozone , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , mixing ratio , volume (thermodynamics) , altitude (triangle) , atmospheric chemistry , nitrogen dioxide , tropospheric ozone , climatology , meteorology , chemistry , geology , physics , mathematics , geometry , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
The SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment (SONEX) over the North Atlantic during October/November 1997 offered an excellent opportunity to examine the budget of reactive nitrogen in the upper troposphere (8–12 km altitude). The median measured total reactive nitrogen (NO y ) mixing ratio was 425 parts per trillion by volume (pptv). A data set merged to the HNO 3 measurement time resolution was used to calculate NO y (NO y sum) by summing the reactive nitrogen species (a combination of measured plus modeled results) and comparing it to measured NO y (NO y meas.). Comparisons were done for tropospheric air (O 3 <100 parts per billion by volume (ppbv)) and stratospherically influenced air (O 3 > 100 ppbv) with both showing good agreement between NO y sum and NO y meas. (slope >0.9 and r² ≈ 0.9). The total reactive nitrogen budget in the upper troposphere over the North Atlantic appears to be dominated by a mixture of NO x (NO + NO 2 ), HNO 3 , and PAN. In tropospheric air median values of NO x /NO y were ≈ 0.25, HNO 3 /NO y ≈ 0.35 and PAN/NO y ≈ 0.17. Particulate NO 3 − and alkyl nitrates together composed <10% of NO y , while model estimated HNO 4 averaged 12%. For the air parcels sampled during SONEX, there does not appear to be a large reservoir of unidentified NO y compounds.