Open AccessTropospheric ozone, lightning, and climate change
Author(s) -
Sinha Ashok,
Toumi Ralf
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/96jd03710
Subject(s) - troposphere , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , climatology , radiative forcing , climate model , tropospheric ozone , forcing (mathematics) , climate change , greenhouse gas , albedo (alchemy) , paleoclimatology , lightning (connector) , geology , physics , art , power (physics) , oceanography , quantum mechanics , performance art , art history
Tropospheric O 3 is an important greenhouse gas. Lightning is a major source of NO x , and thus of tropospheric O 3 . It has recently been suggested that due to an apparent strong correlation between lightning strike rates and surface temperatures, tropospheric O 3 may significantly increase if the climate warms, resulting in a substantial positive climate forcing. This paper attempts to quantify the extent of this forcing and the associated positive climate feedback. Simulations in‐corporating a tropospheric O 3 ‐surface temperature parameterization are performed of the last glacial maximum and of a climate in which greenhouse gas concentrations have been doubled. The O 3 parameterization is based on results from a two‐dimensional chemical model. The simulations are obtained using a one‐dimensional radiative‐convective model, in which CO 2 , CH 4 , tropospheric O 3 , and in the case of the paleoclimate simulation the surface albedo, are varied both independently and in combination. In the paleoclimate case, the tropospheric O 3 feedback has roughly two thirds of the effect on surface temperatures as the change in tropospheric O 3 due to industrialization alone. During climate warming, the effect on surface temperatures is about 60% of that due to a doubling of CH 4 . The results indicate that a surface temperature‐lightning‐O 3 feedback, currently absent in general circulation models, could significantly affect anthropogenic climate change. Improved modeling and observations are required to confirm this.