Articles | Volume 16, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13477-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13477-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
01 Nov 2016
Research article |
| 01 Nov 2016
Observing atmospheric formaldehyde (HCHO) from space: validation and intercomparison of six retrievals from four satellites (OMI, GOME2A, GOME2B, OMPS) with SEAC4RS aircraft observations over the southeast US
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Daniel J. Jacob
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, USA
Patrick S. Kim
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, USA
Jenny A. Fisher
Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of
Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong,
Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Karen Yu
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Katherine R. Travis
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Loretta J. Mickley
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Robert M. Yantosca
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Melissa P. Sulprizio
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Isabelle De Smedt
Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium
Gonzalo González Abad
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
Kelly Chance
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland,
College Park, Maryland, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Richard Ferrare
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA
Alan Fried
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder,
CO, USA
Johnathan W. Hair
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA
Thomas F. Hanisco
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Dirk Richter
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder,
CO, USA
Amy Jo Scarino
Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA, USA
James Walega
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder,
CO, USA
Petter Weibring
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder,
CO, USA
Glenn M. Wolfe
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland
Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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Eunjo S. Ha, Rokjin J. Park, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Gitaek T. Lee, Sieun D. Lee, Seunga Shin, Dong-Won Lee, Hyunkee Hong, Christophe Lerot, Isabelle De Smedt, Thomas Danckaert, Francois Hendrick, and Hitoshi Irie
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6369–6384, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6369-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6369-2024, 2024
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In this study, we evaluated the GEMS glyoxal products by comparing them with TROPOMI and MAX-DOAS measurements. GEMS and TROPOMI VCDs present similar spatial distributions. Monthly variations in GEMS VCDs and TROPOMI and MAX-DOAS VCDs differ in northeastern Asia, which we attributed to a polluted reference spectrum and high NO2 concentrations. GEMS glyoxal products with unparalleled temporal resolution would enrich our understanding of VOC emissions and diurnal variation.
Yasin Elshorbany, Jerald R. Ziemke, Sarah Strode, Hervé Petetin, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Isabelle De Smedt, Kenneth Pickering, Rodrigo J. Seguel, Helen Worden, Tamara Emmerichs, Domenico Taraborrelli, Maria Cazorla, Suvarna Fadnavis, Rebecca R. Buchholz, Benjamin Gaubert, Néstor Y. Rojas, Thiago Nogueira, Thérèse Salameh, and Min Huang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12225–12257, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12225-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12225-2024, 2024
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We investigated tropospheric ozone spatial variability and trends from 2005 to 2019 and related those to ozone precursors on global and regional scales. We also investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of the ozone formation regime in relation to ozone chemical sources and sinks. Our analysis is based on remote sensing products of the tropospheric column of ozone and its precursors, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and total column CO, as well as ozonesonde data and model simulations.
Sanja Dmitrovic, Joseph S. Schlosser, Ryan Bennett, Brian Cairns, Gao Chen, Glenn S. Diskin, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Michael A. Jones, Jeffrey S. Reid, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Armin Sorooshian, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Luke D. Ziemba, and Snorre Stamnes
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3088, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3088, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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This study focuses on aerosol particles, which critically influence the atmosphere by scattering and absorbing light. To understand these interactions, airborne field campaigns deploy instruments that can measure these particles’ directly or indirectly via remote sensing. We introduce the In Situ Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (ISARA) to ensure consistency between aerosol measurements and show that the two data sets generally align, with some deviation caused by the presence of larger particles.
Suvarna Fadnavis, Yasin Elshorbany, Jerald Ziemke, Brice Barret, Alexandru Rap, P. R. Satheesh Chandran, Richard Pope, Vijay Sagar, Domenico Taraborrelli, Eric Le Flochmoen, Juan Cuesta, Catherine Wespes, Folkert Boersma, Isolde Glissenaar, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Hervé Petetin, and Isidora Anglou
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3050, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3050, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Satellites and model simulations show enhancement in tropospheric ozone, which is highly impacted by human-produced Nitrous oxides compared to volatile organic compounds. The increased amount of ozone enhances ozone radiative forcing. The ozone enhancement and associated radiative forcing are highest over South and East Asia. The emissions of Nitrous oxides show a higher influence in shifting ozone photochemical regimes than volatile organic compounds.
Soodabeh Namdari, Sanja Dmitrovic, Gao Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Simon Kirschler, John B. Nowak, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Holger Vömel, Xubin Zeng, and Armin Sorooshian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3024, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3024, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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We conducted this study to assess the accuracy of airborne measurements of wind, temperature, and humidity, essential for understanding atmospheric processes. Using data from NASA's ACTIVATE campaign, we compared measurements from the TAMMS and DLH aboard a Falcon aircraft with dropsondes from a King Air, matching data points based on location and time using statistical methods. The study showed strong agreement, confirming the reliability of these methods for advancing climate models.
Lucas A. Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, Zichong Chen, Nicholas Balasus, Sarah E. Hancock, Megan He, James D. East, Todd A. Mooring, Alexander Oort Alonso, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Ilse Aben, Sabour Baray, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Felipe J. Cardoso-Saldaña, Emily Reidy, and Daniel J. Jacob
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2700, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2700, 2024
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Reducing methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, is a top policy concern for mitigating anthropogenic climate change. The Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) is an advanced, cloud-based software that translates satellite observations into actionable emissions data. Here we present IMI version 2.0 with vastly expanded capabilities. These updates enable a wider range of scientific and stakeholder applications from regional to global scales and allow continuous emissions monitoring.
Steven A. Bailey, Reem A. Hannun, Andrew K. Swanson, and Thomas F. Hanisco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5903–5910, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5903-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5903-2024, 2024
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We have developed a portable, optically based instrument that measures NO2. It consumes less than 6 W of power, so it can easily run off a small battery. This instrument has made both balloon and UAV flights. NO2 measurement results compare favorably with other known NO2 instruments. We find this instrument to be stable with repeatable results compared with calibration sources. Material cost to build a single instrument is around USD 4000. This could be lowered with economies of scale.
Genevieve Rose Lorenzo, Luke D. Ziemba, Avelino F. Arellano, Mary C. Barth, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Richard Ferrare, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Michael A. Shook, Simone Tilmes, Jian Wang, Qian Xiao, Jun Zhang, and Armin Sorooshian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2604, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2604, 2024
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Novel aerosol hygroscopicity analysis of CAMP2Ex field campaign data show low aerosol hygroscopicity values in Southeast Asia. Organic carbon from smoke decreases hygroscopicity to levels more like those in continental than in polluted marine regions. Hygroscopicity changes at cloud level demonstrate how surface particles impact clouds in the region affecting model representation of aerosol and cloud interactions in similar polluted marine regions with high organic carbon emissions.
Beata Opacka, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Jean-François Müller, Isabelle De Smedt, Jos van Geffen, Eloise A. Marais, Rebekah P. Horner, Dylan B. Millet, Kelly C. Wells, and Alex B. Guenther
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2912, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2912, 2024
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Vegetation releases biogenic volatile organic compounds, while soils and lightning contribute to the natural emissions of nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. These gases interact in complex ways. Using satellite data and models, we developed a new method to simultaneously optimise these natural emissions over Africa in 2019. Our approach led to an increase in natural emissions that is supported by independent data showing that current estimates are underestimated.
Fernando Chouza, Thierry Leblanc, Patrick Wang, Steven S. Brown, Kristen Zuraski, Wyndom Chace, Caroline C. Womack, Jeff Peischl, John Hair, Taylor Shingler, and John Sullivan
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-154, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-154, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The JPL lidar group developed the SMOL (Small Mobile Ozone Lidar), an affordable ozone differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system covering all altitudes from 200 m to 10 km. a.g.l. The comparison with airborne in-situ and lidar measurements shows very good agreement. An additional comparison with nearby surface ozone measuring instruments indicates unbiased measurements by the SMOL lidars down to 200 m above ground level.
Cassidy Soloff, Taiwo Ajayi, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Francesca Gallo, Johnathan W. Hair, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10385–10408, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10385-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10385-2024, 2024
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Using aircraft measurements over the northwestern Atlantic between the US East Coast and Bermuda and trajectory modeling of continental outflow, we identify trace gas and particle properties that exhibit gradients with offshore distance and quantify these changes with high-resolution measurements of concentrations and particle chemistry, size, and scattering properties. This work furthers our understanding of the complex interactions between continental and marine environments.
Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Joanna Joiner, Vitali Fioletov, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Colin Seftor, and Alexander Vasilkov
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4291–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, 2024
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas from human activities and volcanoes, causes air pollution, acid rain, and changes to climate and the ozone layer. Satellites have been used to monitor SO2 globally, including remote areas. Here we describe a new satellite SO2 dataset from the OMPS instrument that flies on the N20 satellite. Results show that the new dataset agrees well with the existing ones from other satellites and can help to continue the global monitoring of SO2 from space.
Christopher Chan Miller, Sébastien Roche, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Amir H. Souri, Eamon Conway, Bingkun Luo, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Kang Sun, Carly Staebell, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bruce C. Daube, Yang Li, Joshua L. Laughner, Bianca C. Baier, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5429–5454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, 2024
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MethaneSAT is an upcoming satellite mission designed to monitor methane emissions from the oil and gas (O&G) industry globally. Here, we present observations from the first flight campaign of MethaneAIR, a MethaneSAT-like instrument mounted on an aircraft. MethaneAIR can map methane with high precision and accuracy over a typically sized oil and gas basin (~200 km2) in a single flight. This paper demonstrates the capability of the upcoming satellite to routinely track global O&G emissions.
Yujin J. Oak, Daniel J. Jacob, Nicholas Balasus, Laura H. Yang, Heesung Chong, Junsung Park, Hanlim Lee, Gitaek T. Lee, Eunjo S. Ha, Rokjin J. Park, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5147–5159, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5147-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5147-2024, 2024
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We present an improved NO2 product from GEMS by calibrating it to TROPOMI using machine learning and by reprocessing both satellite products to adopt common NO2 profiles. Our corrected GEMS product combines the high data density of GEMS with the accuracy of TROPOMI, supporting the combined use for analyses of East Asia air quality including emissions and chemistry. This method can be extended to other species and geostationary satellites including TEMPO and Sentinel-4.
Jan-Lukas Tirpitz, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Nathaniel Brockway, Robert Spurr, Matt Christi, Samuel Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Johnathan Hair, Taylor Shingler, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Richard Moore, Elizabeth Wiggins, Vijay Natraj, Nicolas Theys, and Jochen Stutz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2353, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2353, 2024
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To calculate distributions of actinic flux and photolysis frequencies in a wildfire plume, we combine plume composition data from the 2019 NASA FIREX-AQ campaign with state-of-the-art radiative transfer modeling techniques. Excellent agreement of model and observations demonstrates the applicability of this approach to constrain photochemistry in such plumes. We identify limiting factors for the modeling accuracy and discuss spatial and spectral features of the distributions.
Katherine R. Travis, Benjamin A. Nault, James H. Crawford, Kelvin H. Bates, Donald R. Blake, Ronald C. Cohen, Alan Fried, Samuel R. Hall, L. Gregory Huey, Young Ro Lee, Simone Meinardi, Kyung-Eun Min, Isobel J. Simpson, and Kirk Ullman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9555–9572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9555-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9555-2024, 2024
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Human activities result in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to air pollution. Detailed VOC measurements were taken during a field study in South Korea. When compared to VOC inventories, large discrepancies showed underestimates from chemical products, liquefied petroleum gas, and long-range transport. Improved emissions and chemistry of these VOCs better described urban pollution. The new chemical scheme is relevant to urban areas and other VOC sources.
Corey G. Amiot, Timothy J. Lang, Susan C. van den Heever, Richard A. Ferrare, Ousmane O. Sy, Lawrence D. Carey, Sundar A. Christopher, John R. Mecikalski, Sean W. Freeman, George Alexander Sokolowsky, Chris A. Hostetler, and Simone Tanelli
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2384, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2384, 2024
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Decoupling aerosol and environmental impacts on convection is challenging. Using airborne data, we correlated microwave-frequency convective metrics with aerosol concentrations in several different environments. Medium-to-high aerosol concentrations were often strongly and positively correlated with convective intensity and frequency, especially in favorable environments based on temperature lapse rates and K-Index. Storm environment is important to consider when evaluating aerosol effects.
Taiwo Ajayi, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Chris A. Hostetler, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Cassidy Soloff, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9197–9218, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9197-2024, 2024
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This study uses airborne data to examine vertical profiles of trace gases, aerosol particles, and meteorological variables over a remote marine area (Bermuda). Results show distinct differences based on both air mass source region (North America, Ocean, Caribbean/North Africa) and altitude for a given air mass type. This work highlights the sensitivity of remote marine areas to long-range transport and the importance of considering the vertical dependence of trace gas and aerosol properties.
Haipeng Lin, Louisa K. Emmons, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Laura Hyesung Yang, Xu Feng, Ruijun Dang, Shixian Zhai, Yunxiao Tang, Makoto M. Kelp, Nadia K. Colombi, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8607–8624, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8607-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8607-2024, 2024
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Tropospheric ozone is a major air pollutant, a greenhouse gas, and a major indicator of model skill. Global atmospheric chemistry models show large differences in simulations of tropospheric ozone, but isolating sources of differences is complicated by different model environments. By implementing the GEOS-Chem model side by side to CAM-chem within a common Earth system model, we identify and evaluate specific differences between the two models and their impacts on key chemical species.
Elise Penn, Daniel J. Jacob, Zichong Chen, James D. East, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lori Bruhwiler, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Yuzhong Zhang, and John Worden
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2260, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2260, 2024
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The hydroxyl radical (OH), destroys many air pollutants, including methane. Global mean OH cannot be directly measured, so it is inferred with the methyl chloroform (MCF) proxy. MCF is decreasing, and a replacement is needed. We use satellite observations of methane in two spectral ranges as a proxy for OH instead. We find shortwave infrared observations can characterize yearly OH and its seasonality, but not the latitudinal distribution. Thermal infrared observations add little information.
Amir H. Souri, Gonzalo González Abad, Glenn M. Wolfe, Tijl Verhoelst, Corinne Vigouroux, Gaia Pinardi, Steven Compernolle, Bavo Langerock, Bryan N. Duncan, and Matthew S. Johnson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1947, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1947, 2024
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We establish a simple yet robust relationship between ozone production rates and several geophysical parameters obtained from several intensive atmospheric composition campaigns. We have shown that satellite remote sensing data can effectively constrain these parameters, enabling us to produce the first global maps of ozone production rates with unprecedented resolution.
Prajjwal Rawat, James H. Crawford, Katherine R. Travis, Laura M. Judd, Mary Angelique G. Demetillo, Lukas C. Valin, James J. Szykman, Andrew Whitehill, Eric Baumann, and Thomas F. Hanisco
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-114, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-114, 2024
Revised manuscript has not been submitted
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The Pandonia Global Network (PGN) consists of Pandora spectrometers that observe trace gases at high time resolution to validate satellite observations and understand local air quality. To aid users, PGN assigns quality flags which assure scientifically valid data, but eliminate large amounts of data appropriate for scientific applications. A new method based on contemporaneous data in two independent observation modes is proven using complementary ground-based and airborne observations.
Andrea E. Gordon, Cameron R. Homeyer, Jessica B. Smith, Rei Ueyama, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Elliot L. Atlas, Kate Smith, Jasna V. Pittman, David S. Sayres, David M. Wilmouth, Apoorva Pandey, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jennifer Hare, Reem A. Hannun, Steven Wofsy, Bruce C. Daube, and Stephen Donnelly
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7591–7608, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7591-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7591-2024, 2024
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In situ airborne observations of ongoing tropopause-overshooting convection and an above-anvil cirrus plume from the 31 May 2022 flight of the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign are examined. Upper troposphere and lower stratosphere composition changes are evaluated along with possible contributing dynamical and physical processes. Measurements reveal multiple changes in air mass composition and stratospheric hydration throughout the flight.
Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel Jacob, Zichong Chen, Hannah Nesser, Aaron Davitt, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Nicholas Balasus, Lucas A. Estrada, James D. East, Elise Penn, Cynthia A. Randles, John Worden, Ilse Aben, Robert J. Parker, and Joannes D. Maasakkers
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1763, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1763, 2024
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We quantify 2021 methane emissions in South America at up to 25 km × 25 km resolution using satellite methane observations. We find a 55 % upward correction to the national anthropogenic inventories reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under the Paris Agreement. Our estimates match inventories for Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay but are much higher for other countries. Livestock emissions (65 % of anthropogenic emissions) show the largest discrepancies.
Shao Shi, Jinghao Zhai, Xin Yang, Yechun Ruan, Yuanlong Huang, Xujian Chen, Antai Zhang, Jianhuai Ye, Guomao Zheng, Baohua Cai, Yaling Zeng, Yixiang Wang, Chunbo Xing, Yujie Zhang, Tzung-May Fu, Lei Zhu, Huizhong Shen, and Chen Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7001–7012, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7001-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7001-2024, 2024
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The determination of ions in the mass spectra of individual particles remains uncertain. We have developed a standard-free mass calibration algorithm applicable to more than 98 % of ambient particles. With our algorithm, ions with ~ 0.05 Th mass difference could be determined. Therefore, many more atmospheric species could be determined and involved in the source apportionment of aerosols, the study of chemical reaction mechanisms, and the analysis of single-particle mixing states.
Laura Hyesung Yang, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Yujin J. Oak, Haipeng Lin, Jhoon Kim, Shixian Zhai, Nadia K. Colombi, Drew C. Pendergrass, Ellie Beaudry, Viral Shah, Xu Feng, Robert M. Yantosca, Heesung Chong, Junsung Park, Hanlim Lee, Won-Jin Lee, Soontae Kim, Eunhye Kim, Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7027–7039, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7027-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7027-2024, 2024
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The Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) provides hourly measurements of NO2. We use the chemical transport model to find how emissions, chemistry, and transport drive the changes in NO2 observed by GEMS at different times of the day. In winter, the chemistry plays a minor role, and high daytime emissions dominate the diurnal variation in NO2, balanced by transport. In summer, emissions, chemistry, and transport play an important role in shaping the diurnal variation in NO2.
Brian Nathan, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Stijn Naus, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Robert J. Parker, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6845–6863, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, 2024
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Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo region is notoriously hard to observe from space and features intensive oil exploitation, although production has strongly decreased in recent years. We estimate methane emissions using 2018–2020 TROPOMI satellite observations with national and regional transport models. Despite the production decrease, we find relatively constant emissions from Lake Maracaibo between 2018 and 2020, indicating that there could be large emissions from abandoned infrastructure.
Sanja Dmitrovic, Johnathan W. Hair, Brian L. Collister, Ewan Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Yongxiang Hu, John A. Reagan, Claire E. Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, Taylor J. Shingler, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Holger Vömel, Xubin Zeng, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3515–3532, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3515-2024, 2024
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This study introduces and evaluates a new ocean surface wind speed product from the NASA Langley Research Center (LARC) airborne High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar – Generation 2 (HSRL-2) during the NASA ACTIVATE mission. We show that HSRL-2 surface wind speed data are accurate when compared to ground-truth dropsonde measurements. Therefore, the HSRL-2 instrument is able obtain accurate, high-resolution surface wind speed data in airborne field campaigns.
Tianlang Zhao, Jingqiu Mao, Zolal Ayazpour, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, and Yiqi Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6105–6121, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6105-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6105-2024, 2024
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HCHO variability is a key tracer in understanding VOC emissions in response to climate change. We investigate the role of methane oxidation and biogenic and wildfire emissions in HCHO interannual variability over northern high latitudes in summer, emphasizing wildfires as a key driver of HCHO interannual variability in Alaska, Siberia and northern Canada using satellite HCHO and SIF retrievals and then GEOS-Chem model. We show SIF is a tool to understand biogenic HCHO variability in this region.
Ewan Crosbie, Luke D. Ziemba, Michael A. Shook, Taylor Shingler, Johnathan W. Hair, Armin Sorooshian, Richard A. Ferrare, Brian Cairns, Yonghoon Choi, Joshua DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Chris Hostetler, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, David Painemal, Claire Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, and Edward Winstead
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6123–6152, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, 2024
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Marine clouds are found to clump together in regions or lines, readily discernible from satellite images of the ocean. While clustering is also a feature of deep storm clouds, we focus on smaller cloud systems associated with fair weather and brief localized showers. Two aircraft sampled the region around these shallow systems: one incorporated measurements taken within, adjacent to, and below the clouds, while the other provided a survey from above using remote sensing techniques.
Drew C. Pendergrass, Daniel J. Jacob, Yujin J. Oak, Jeewoo Lee, Minseok Kim, Jhoon Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Shixian Zhai, Hitoshi Irie, and Hong Liao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-172, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-172, 2024
Preprint withdrawn
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Fine particles suspended in the atmosphere are a major form of air pollution and an important public health burden. However, measurements of particulate matter are sparse in space and in places like East Asia monitors are established after regulatory policies to improve pollution have changed. In this paper, we use machine learning to fill in the gaps. We train an algorithm to predict pollution at the surface from the atmosphere’s opacity, then produce high resolution maps of data without gaps.
Heesung Chong, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Christopher Chan Miller, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Rafael P. Fernandez, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Zolal Ayazpour, Huiqun Wang, Amir H. Souri, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Ewan O'Sullivan, Jhoon Kim, Ja-Ho Koo, William R. Simpson, François Hendrick, Richard Querel, Glen Jaross, Colin Seftor, and Raid M. Suleiman
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2873–2916, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2873-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2873-2024, 2024
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We present a new bromine monoxide (BrO) product derived using radiances measured from OMPS-NM on board the Suomi-NPP satellite. This product provides nearly a decade of global stratospheric and tropospheric column retrievals, a feature that is currently rare in publicly accessible datasets. Both stratospheric and tropospheric columns from OMPS-NM demonstrate robust performance, exhibiting good agreement with ground-based observations collected at three stations (Lauder, Utqiagvik, and Harestua).
Jin Liao, Glenn M. Wolfe, Alex E. Kotsakis, Julie M. Nicely, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Zolal Ayazpour, Isabelle De Smedt, Eric C. Apel, and Rebecca S. Hornbrook
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-72, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-72, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Validation of satellite HCHO over the remote marine regions is relatively few and modeled HCHO in these regions is usually added as a global satellite HCHO background. This paper intercompares three satellite HCHO retrievals and validates them against in situ observations from the NASA ATom mission. All retrievals are correlated with ATom integrated columns over remote oceans, with OMI SAO (v004) showing the best agreement. A persistent low bias is found in all retrievals at high latitudes.
Leong Wai Siu, Joseph S. Schlosser, David Painemal, Brian Cairns, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Chris A. Hostetler, Longlei Li, Mary M. Kleb, Amy Jo Scarino, Taylor J. Shingler, Armin Sorooshian, Snorre A. Stamnes, and Xubin Zeng
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2739–2759, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2739-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2739-2024, 2024
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An unprecedented 3-year aerosol dataset was collected from a recent NASA field campaign over the western North Atlantic Ocean, which offers a special opportunity to evaluate two state-of-the-art remote sensing instruments, one lidar and the other polarimeter, on the same aircraft. Special attention has been paid to validate aerosol optical depth data and their uncertainties when no reference dataset is available. Physical reasons for the disagreement between two instruments are discussed.
Jack H. Bruno, Dylan Jervis, Daniel J. Varon, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2625–2636, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2625-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2625-2024, 2024
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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a current high-priority target for short- to mid-term climate change mitigation. Detection of individual methane emitters from space has become possible in recent years, and the volume of data for this task has been rapidly growing, outpacing processing capabilities. We introduce an automated approach, U-Plume, which can detect and quantify emissions from individual methane sources in high-spatial-resolution satellite data.
Hannah Nesser, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Alba Lorente, Zichong Chen, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Margaux Winter, Shuang Ma, A. Anthony Bloom, John R. Worden, Robert N. Stavins, and Cynthia A. Randles
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5069–5091, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5069-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5069-2024, 2024
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We quantify 2019 methane emissions in the contiguous US (CONUS) at a ≈ 25 km × 25 km resolution using satellite methane observations. We find a 13 % upward correction to the 2023 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (GHGI) for 2019, with large corrections to individual states, urban areas, and landfills. This may present a challenge for US climate policies and goals, many of which target significant reductions in methane emissions.
Hongyu Liu, Bo Zhang, Richard H. Moore, Luke D. Ziemba, Richard A. Ferrare, Hyundeok Choi, Armin Sorooshian, David Painemal, Hailong Wang, Michael A. Shook, Amy Jo Scarino, Johnathan W. Hair, Ewan C. Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Taylor J. Shingler, Chris A. Hostetler, Gao Chen, Mary M. Kleb, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jason L. Tackett, Mark A. Vaughan, Yongxiang Hu, Glenn S. Diskin, John B. Nowak, Joshua P. DiGangi, Yonghoon Choi, Christoph A. Keller, and Matthew S. Johnson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1127, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1127, 2024
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We use the GEOS-Chem model to simulate aerosols over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) during the winter and summer campaigns of ACTIVATE 2020. Model results are evaluated against in situ and remote sensing measurements from two aircraft as well as ground-based and satellite observations. The improved understanding of the aerosol life cycle, composition, transport pathways, and distribution has important implications for characterizing aerosol-cloud-meteorology interactions over the WNAO.
Gitaek T. Lee, Rokjin J. Park, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Eunjo S. Ha, Sieun D. Lee, Seunga Shin, Myoung-Hwan Ahn, Mina Kang, Yong-Sang Choi, Gyuyeon Kim, Dong-Won Lee, Deok-Rae Kim, Hyunkee Hong, Bavo Langerock, Corinne Vigouroux, Christophe Lerot, Francois Hendrick, Gaia Pinardi, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Pucai Wang, Heesung Chong, Yeseul Cho, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4733–4749, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4733-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4733-2024, 2024
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This study evaluates the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) HCHO product by comparing its vertical column densities (VCDs) with those of TROPOMI and ground-based observations. Based on some sensitivity tests, obtaining radiance references under clear-sky conditions significantly improves HCHO retrieval quality. GEMS HCHO VCDs captured seasonal and diurnal variations well during the first year of observation, showing consistency with TROPOMI and ground-based observations.
Hiren T. Jethva, Omar Torres, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Anthony L. Cook, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Jens Redemann, Vinay Kayetha, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Logan Mitchell, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2335–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, 2024
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We introduce a novel synergy algorithm applied to ORALCES airborne measurements of above-cloud aerosol optical depth and UV–Vis satellite observations from OMI and MODIS to retrieve spectral aerosol single-scattering albedo of lofted layers of carbonaceous smoke aerosols over clouds. The development of the proposed aerosol–cloud algorithm implies a possible synergy of CALIOP and OMI–MODIS passive sensors to deduce a global product of AOD and SSA of absorbing aerosols above clouds.
Amy Christiansen, Loretta J. Mickley, and Lu Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4569–4589, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4569-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4569-2024, 2024
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In this work, we provide an additional constraint on emissions and trends of nitrogen oxides using nitrate wet deposition (NWD) fluxes over the United States and Europe from 1980–2020. We find that NWD measurements constrain total NOx emissions well. We also find evidence of NOx emission overestimates in both domains, but especially over Europe, where NOx emissions are overestimated by a factor of 2. Reducing NOx emissions over Europe improves model representation of ozone at the surface.
Juseon Bak, Xiong Liu, Kai Yang, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Ewan O'Sullivan, Kelly Chance, and Cheol-Hee Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1891–1911, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1891-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1891-2024, 2024
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The new version (V2) of the OMI ozone profile product is introduced to improve retrieval quality and long-term consistency of tropospheric ozone by incorporating the recent collection 4 OMI L1b spectral products and refining radiometric correction, forward model calculation, and a priori ozone data.
Xu Feng, Loretta J. Mickley, Michelle L. Bell, Tianjia Liu, Jenny A. Fisher, and Maria Val Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2985–3007, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2985-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2985-2024, 2024
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During severe wildfire seasons, smoke can have a significant impact on air quality in Australia. Our study demonstrates that characterization of the smoke plume injection fractions greatly affects estimates of surface smoke PM2.5. Using the plume behavior predicted by the machine learning method leads to the best model agreement with observed surface PM2.5 in key cities across Australia, with smoke PM2.5 accounting for 5 %–52 % of total PM2.5 on average during fire seasons from 2009 to 2020.
Kyoung-Min Kim, Si-Wan Kim, Seunghwan Seo, Donald R. Blake, Seogju Cho, James H. Crawford, Louisa K. Emmons, Alan Fried, Jay R. Herman, Jinkyu Hong, Jinsang Jung, Gabriele G. Pfister, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Jung-Hun Woo, and Qiang Zhang
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1931–1955, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, 2024
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Three emission inventories were evaluated for East Asia using data acquired during a field campaign in 2016. The inventories successfully reproduced the daily variations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide. However, the spatial distributions of model ozone did not fully agree with the observations. Additionally, all simulations underestimated carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels. Increasing VOC emissions over South Korea resulted in improved ozone simulations.
Sebastian D. Eastham, Guillaume P. Chossière, Raymond L. Speth, Daniel J. Jacob, and Steven R. H. Barrett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2687–2703, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2687-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2687-2024, 2024
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Emissions from aircraft are known to cause air quality impacts worldwide, but the scale and mechanisms of this impact are not well understood. This work uses high-resolution computational modeling of the atmosphere to show that air pollution changes from aviation are mostly the result of emissions during cruise (high-altitude) operations, that these impacts are related to how much non-aviation pollution is present, and that prior regional assessments have underestimated these impacts.
Eamon K. Conway, Amir H. Souri, Joshua Benmergui, Kang Sun, Xiong Liu, Carly Staebell, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Jenna Samra, Jonas Wilzewski, Sebastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Jacob Hohl, Bruce Daube, Iouli Gordon, Kelly Chance, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1347–1362, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, 2024
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The work presented here describes the processes required to convert raw sensor data for the MethaneAIR instrument to geometrically calibrated data. Each algorithm is described in detail. MethaneAIR is the airborne simulator for MethaneSAT, a new satellite under development by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the EDF. MethaneSAT's goals are to precisely map over 80 % of the production sources of methane emissions from oil and gas fields across the globe to a high degree of accuracy.
Jean-François Müller, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Glenn-Michael Oomen, Beata Opacka, Isabelle De Smedt, Alex Guenther, Corinne Vigouroux, Bavo Langerock, Carlos Augusto Bauer Aquino, Michel Grutter, James Hannigan, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Erik Lutsch, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria Makarova, Jean-Marc Metzger, Isamu Morino, Isao Murata, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Amelie Röhling, Wolfgang Stremme, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, and Alan Fried
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2207–2237, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2207-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2207-2024, 2024
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Formaldehyde observations from satellites can be used to constrain the emissions of volatile organic compounds, but those observations have biases. Using an atmospheric model, aircraft and ground-based remote sensing data, we quantify these biases, propose a correction to the data, and assess the consequence of this correction for the evaluation of emissions.
Min Huang, Gregory R. Carmichael, James H. Crawford, Kevin W. Bowman, Isabelle De Smedt, Andreas Colliander, Michael H. Cosh, Sujay V. Kumar, Alex B. Guenther, Scott J. Janz, Ryan M. Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, Niko M. Fedkin, Robert J. Swap, John D. Bolten, and Alicia T. Joseph
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-484, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-484, 2024
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This study uses model simulations along with multiplatform, multidisciplinary observations and a range of analysis methods to estimate and understand the distributions, temporal changes, and impacts of reactive nitrogen and ozone over the most populous US region that has undergone significant environmental changes. Deposition, biogenic emissions, and extra-regional sources have been playing increasingly important roles in controlling pollutants’ budgets in this area as local emissions go down.
Kelvin H. Bates, Mathew J. Evans, Barron H. Henderson, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1511–1524, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1511-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1511-2024, 2024
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Accurate representation of rates and products of chemical reactions in atmospheric models is crucial for simulating concentrations of pollutants and climate forcers. We update the widely used GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model with reaction parameters from recent compilations of experimental data and demonstrate the implications for key atmospheric chemical species. The updates decrease tropospheric CO mixing ratios and increase stratospheric nitrogen oxide mixing ratios, among other changes.
Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Matthew M. Coggon, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Hannah Allen, Eric C. Apel, Megan M. Bela, Donald R. Blake, Ilann Bourgeois, Steven S. Brown, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jason M. St. Clair, James H. Crawford, John D. Crounse, Douglas A. Day, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Alan Fried, Jessica B. Gilman, Hongyu Guo, Johnathan W. Hair, Hannah S. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem Hannun, Alan Hills, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Joseph M. Katich, Aaron Lamplugh, Young Ro Lee, Jin Liao, Jakob Lindaas, Stuart A. McKeen, Tomas Mikoviny, Benjamin A. Nault, J. Andrew Neuman, John B. Nowak, Demetrios Pagonis, Jeff Peischl, Anne E. Perring, Felix Piel, Pamela S. Rickly, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Thomas B. Ryerson, Melinda K. Schueneman, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Joshua P. Schwarz, Kanako Sekimoto, Vanessa Selimovic, Taylor Shingler, David J. Tanner, Laura Tomsche, Krystal T. Vasquez, Patrick R. Veres, Rebecca Washenfelder, Petter Weibring, Paul O. Wennberg, Armin Wisthaler, Glenn M. Wolfe, Caroline C. Womack, Lu Xu, Katherine Ball, Robert J. Yokelson, and Carsten Warneke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 929–956, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-929-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-929-2024, 2024
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This study reports emissions of gases and particles from wildfires. These emissions are related to chemical proxies that can be measured by satellite and incorporated into models to improve predictions of wildfire impacts on air quality and climate.
Glenn-Michael Oomen, Jean-François Müller, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Isabelle De Smedt, Thomas Blumenstock, Rigel Kivi, Maria Makarova, Mathias Palm, Amelie Röhling, Yao Té, Corinne Vigouroux, Martina M. Friedrich, Udo Frieß, François Hendrick, Alexis Merlaud, Ankie Piters, Andreas Richter, Michel Van Roozendael, and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 449–474, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-449-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-449-2024, 2024
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Natural emissions from vegetation have a profound impact on air quality for their role in the formation of harmful tropospheric ozone and organic aerosols, yet these emissions are highly uncertain. In this study, we quantify emissions of organic gases over Europe using high-quality satellite measurements of formaldehyde. These satellite observations suggest that emissions from vegetation are much higher than predicted by models, especially in southern Europe.
Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Thomas Lauvaux, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Sébastien Roche, Eamon Conway, Amir H. Souri, Kang Sun, Bingkun Luo, Jacob Hawthrone, Jenna Samra, Bruce C. Daube, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Yang Li, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Jeff S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Adam Brandt, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5771–5785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, 2023
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We show that MethaneAIR, a precursor to the MethaneSAT satellite, demonstrates accurate point source quantification during controlled release experiments and regional observations in 2021 and 2022. Results from our two independent quantification methods suggest the accuracy of our sensor and algorithms is better than 25 % for sources emitting 200 kg h−1 or more. Insights from these measurements help establish the capabilities of MethaneSAT and MethaneAIR.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5575–5592, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, 2023
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Snow-covered terrain, with its high reflectance in the UV, typically enhances satellite sensitivity to boundary layer pollution. However, a significant fraction of high-quality cloud-free measurements over snow is currently excluded from analyses. In this study, we investigated how satellite SO2 measurements over snow-covered surfaces can be used to improve estimations of annual SO2 emissions.
Rodriguez Yombo Phaka, Alexis Merlaud, Gaia Pinardi, Martina M. Friedrich, Michel Van Roozendael, Jean-François Müller, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Isabelle De Smedt, François Hendrick, Ermioni Dimitropoulou, Richard Bopili Mbotia Lepiba, Edmond Phuku Phuati, Buenimio Lomami Djibi, Lars Jacobs, Caroline Fayt, Jean-Pierre Mbungu Tsumbu, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5029–5050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5029-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5029-2023, 2023
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We present air quality measurements in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, performed with a newly developed instrument which was installed on a roof of the University of Kinshasa in November 2019. The instrument records spectra of the scattered sunlight, from which we derive the abundances of nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, two important pollutants. We compare our ground-based measurements with those of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI).
Xueying Liu, Yuxuan Wang, Shailaja Wasti, Wei Li, Ehsan Soleimanian, James Flynn, Travis Griggs, Sergio Alvarez, John T. Sullivan, Maurice Roots, Laurence Twigg, Guillaume Gronoff, Timothy Berkoff, Paul Walter, Mark Estes, Johnathan W. Hair, Taylor Shingler, Amy Jo Scarino, Marta Fenn, and Laura Judd
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5493–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5493-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5493-2023, 2023
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With a comprehensive suite of ground-based and airborne remote sensing measurements during the 2021 TRacking Aerosol Convection ExpeRiment – Air Quality (TRACER-AQ) campaign in Houston, this study evaluates the simulation of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height and the ozone vertical profile by a high-resolution (1.33 km) 3-D photochemical model Weather Research and Forecasting-driven GEOS-Chem (WRF-GC).
Simon Kirschler, Christiane Voigt, Bruce E. Anderson, Gao Chen, Ewan C. Crosbie, Richard A. Ferrare, Valerian Hahn, Johnathan W. Hair, Stefan Kaufmann, Richard H. Moore, David Painemal, Claire E. Robinson, Kevin J. Sanchez, Amy J. Scarino, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10731–10750, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10731-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10731-2023, 2023
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In this study we present an overview of liquid and mixed-phase clouds and precipitation in the marine boundary layer over the western North Atlantic Ocean. We compare microphysical properties of pure liquid clouds to mixed-phase clouds and show that the initiation of the ice phase in mixed-phase clouds promotes precipitation. The observational data presented in this study are well suited for investigating the processes that give rise to liquid and mixed-phase clouds, ice, and precipitation.
Serin Kim, Daewon Kim, Hyunkee Hong, Lim-Seok Chang, Hanlim Lee, Deok-Rae Kim, Donghee Kim, Jeong-Ah Yu, Dongwon Lee, Ukkyo Jeong, Chang-Kuen Song, Sang-Woo Kim, Sang Seo Park, Jhoon Kim, Thomas F. Hanisco, Junsung Park, Wonei Choi, and Kwangyul Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3959–3972, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3959-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3959-2023, 2023
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A first evaluation of the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) NO2 was carried out via comparison with the NO2 data obtained from the ground-based Pandora direct-sun measurements at four sites in Seosan, Republic of Korea. Comparisons between GEMS NO2 and Pandora NO2 were performed according to GEMS cloud fraction. GEMS NO2 showed good agreement with that of Pandora NO2 under less cloudy conditions.
Drew C. Pendergrass, Daniel J. Jacob, Hannah Nesser, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa Sulprizio, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, and Kevin W. Bowman
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4793–4810, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4793-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4793-2023, 2023
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We have built a tool called CHEEREIO that allows scientists to use observations of pollutants or gases in the atmosphere, such as from satellites or surface stations, to update supercomputer models that simulate the Earth. CHEEREIO uses the difference between the model simulations of the atmosphere and real-world observations to come up with a good guess for the actual composition of our atmosphere, the true emissions of various pollutants, and whatever else they may want to study.
Nicholas Balasus, Daniel J. Jacob, Alba Lorente, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Zichong Chen, Makoto M. Kelp, Hannah Nesser, and Daniel J. Varon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, 2023
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We use machine learning to remove biases in TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane, with GOSAT observations serving as a reference. We find that the TROPOMI biases relative to GOSAT are related to the presence of aerosols and clouds, the surface brightness, and the specific detector that makes the observation aboard TROPOMI. The resulting blended TROPOMI+GOSAT product is more reliable for quantifying methane emissions.
Armin Sorooshian, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Adam D. Bell, Ryan Bennett, Grace Betito, Sharon P. Burton, Megan E. Buzanowicz, Brian Cairns, Eduard V. Chemyakin, Gao Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Brian L. Collister, Anthony L. Cook, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan C. Crosbie, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sanja Dmitrovic, Eva-Lou Edwards, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David van Gilst, Johnathan W. Hair, David B. Harper, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Chris A. Hostetler, Nathan Jester, Michael Jones, Simon Kirschler, Mary M. Kleb, John M. Kusterer, Sean Leavor, Joseph W. Lee, Hongyu Liu, Kayla McCauley, Richard H. Moore, Joseph Nied, Anthony Notari, John B. Nowak, David Painemal, Kasey E. Phillips, Claire E. Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Joseph S. Schlosser, Shane T. Seaman, Chellappan Seethala, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth A. Sinclair, William L. Smith Jr., Douglas A. Spangenberg, Snorre A. Stamnes, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Holger Vömel, Andrzej P. Wasilewski, Hailong Wang, Edward L. Winstead, Kira Zeider, Xubin Zeng, Bo Zhang, Luke D. Ziemba, and Paquita Zuidema
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3419–3472, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, 2023
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The NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) produced a unique dataset for research into aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions. HU-25 Falcon and King Air aircraft conducted systematic and spatially coordinated flights over the northwest Atlantic Ocean. This paper describes the ACTIVATE flight strategy, instrument and complementary dataset products, data access and usage details, and data application notes.
Daniel J. Varon, Daniel J. Jacob, Benjamin Hmiel, Ritesh Gautam, David R. Lyon, Mark Omara, Melissa Sulprizio, Lu Shen, Drew Pendergrass, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Zachary R. Barkley, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Kenneth J. Davis, Sudhanshu Pandey, Xiao Lu, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Joannes D. Maasakkers, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023
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We use TROPOMI satellite observations to quantify weekly methane emissions from the US Permian oil and gas basin from May 2018 to October 2020. We find that Permian emissions are highly variable, with diverse economic and activity drivers. The most important drivers during our study period were new well development and natural gas price. Permian methane intensity averaged 4.6 % and decreased by 1 % per year.
Huiqun Wang, Gonzalo González Abad, Chris Chan Miller, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Caroline R. Nowlan, Zolal Ayazpour, Heesung Chong, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Ewan O'Sullivan, Kang Sun, Robert Spurr, and Robert J. Hargreaves
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-66, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-66, 2023
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A pipeline for retrieving Total Column Water Vapor from satellite blue spectra is developed. New constraints are considered. Water-leaving radiance is important over the oceans. Results agree with reference datasets well under clear conditions. Due to high sensitivity to clouds, strict data filtering criteria are required. All-sky retrievals can be corrected using machine learning. GPS stations’ representation errors follow a power law relationship with grid resolutions.
Emma L. Yates, Laura T. Iraci, Susan S. Kulawik, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Josette E. Marrero, Caroline L. Parworth, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Thao Paul V. Bui, Cecilia S. Chang, and Jonathan M. Dean-Day
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2375–2389, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2375-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2375-2023, 2023
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The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) flew scientific flights between 2011 and 2018 providing measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, formaldehyde, water vapor and meteorological parameters over California and Nevada, USA. AJAX was a multi-year, multi-objective, multi-instrument program with a variety of sampling strategies resulting in an extensive dataset of interest to a wide variety of users. AJAX measurements have been published at https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/project/AJAX.
Ruijun Dang, Daniel J. Jacob, Viral Shah, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Loretta J. Mickley, Tianjia Liu, Yi Wang, and Jun Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6271–6284, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6271-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6271-2023, 2023
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We use the GEOS-Chem model to better understand the magnitude and trend in free tropospheric NO2 over the contiguous US. Model underestimate of background NO2 is largely corrected by considering aerosol nitrate photolysis. Increase in aircraft emissions affects satellite retrievals by altering the NO2 shape factor, and this effect is expected to increase in future. We show the importance of properly accounting for the free tropospheric background in interpreting NO2 observations from space.
Lixu Jin, Wade Permar, Vanessa Selimovic, Damien Ketcherside, Robert J. Yokelson, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Eric C. Apel, I-Ting Ku, Jeffrey L. Collett Jr., Amy P. Sullivan, Daniel A. Jaffe, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Alan Fried, Matthew M. Coggon, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Carsten Warneke, Emily V. Fischer, and Lu Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5969–5991, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5969-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5969-2023, 2023
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Air quality in the USA has been improving since 1970 due to anthropogenic emission reduction. Those gains have been partly offset by increased wildfire pollution in the western USA in the past 20 years. Still, we do not understand wildfire emissions well due to limited measurements. Here, we used a global transport model to evaluate and constrain current knowledge of wildfire emissions with recent observational constraints, showing the underestimation of wildfire emissions in the western USA.
Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Jacob, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Robert N. Stavins, Robert C. Stowe, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Alba Lorente, Daniel J. Varon, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Drew C. Pendergrass, and Sarah Hancock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, 2023
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We quantify methane emissions from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa by inverse analysis of 2019 TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane. We show that the ability to simply relate oil/gas emissions to activity metrics is compromised by stochastic nature of local infrastructure and management practices. We find that the industry target for oil/gas methane intensity is achievable through associated gas capture, modern infrastructure, and centralized operations.
Haihui Zhu, Randall V. Martin, Betty Croft, Shixian Zhai, Chi Li, Liam Bindle, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, Bruce E. Anderson, Luke D. Ziemba, Johnathan W. Hair, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris A. Hostetler, Inderjeet Singh, Deepangsu Chatterjee, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua S. Schwarz, and Andrew Weinheimer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5023–5042, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5023-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5023-2023, 2023
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Particle size of atmospheric aerosol is important for estimating its climate and health effects, but simulating atmospheric aerosol size is computationally demanding. This study derives a simple parameterization of the size of organic and secondary inorganic ambient aerosol that can be applied to atmospheric models. Applying this parameterization allows a better representation of the global spatial pattern of aerosol size, as verified by ground and airborne measurements.
Emily D. Lenhardt, Lan Gao, Jens Redemann, Feng Xu, Sharon P. Burton, Brian Cairns, Ian Chang, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris A. Hostetler, Pablo E. Saide, Calvin Howes, Yohei Shinozuka, Snorre Stamnes, Mary Kacarab, Amie Dobracki, Jenny Wong, Steffen Freitag, and Athanasios Nenes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2037–2054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2037-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2037-2023, 2023
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Small atmospheric particles, such as smoke from wildfires or pollutants from human activities, impact cloud properties, and clouds have a strong influence on climate. To better understand the distributions of these particles, we develop relationships to derive their concentrations from remote sensing measurements from an instrument called a lidar. Our method is reliable for smoke particles, and similar steps can be taken to develop relationships for other particle types.
Ian Chang, Lan Gao, Connor J. Flynn, Yohei Shinozuka, Sarah J. Doherty, Michael S. Diamond, Karla M. Longo, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Gregory R. Carmichael, Patricia Castellanos, Arlindo M. da Silva, Pablo E. Saide, Calvin Howes, Zhixin Xue, Marc Mallet, Ravi Govindaraju, Qiaoqiao Wang, Yafang Cheng, Yan Feng, Sharon P. Burton, Richard A. Ferrare, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Kristina Pistone, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Kerry G. Meyer, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Leonhard Pfister, Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sundar A. Christopher, and Jens Redemann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4283–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4283-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4283-2023, 2023
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Abundant aerosols are present above low-level liquid clouds over the southeastern Atlantic during late austral spring. The model simulation differences in the proportion of aerosol residing in the planetary boundary layer and in the free troposphere can greatly affect the regional aerosol radiative effects. This study examines the aerosol loading and fractional aerosol loading in the free troposphere among various models and evaluates them against measurements from the NASA ORACLES campaign.
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Drew C. Pendergrass, Nadia K. Colombi, Viral Shah, Laura Hyesung Yang, Qiang Zhang, Shuxiao Wang, Hwajin Kim, Yele Sun, Jin-Soo Choi, Jin-Soo Park, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Jack E. Dibb, Taehyoung Lee, Jin-Seok Han, Bruce E. Anderson, Ke Li, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4271–4281, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4271-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4271-2023, 2023
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Anthropogenic fugitive dust in East Asia not only causes severe coarse particulate matter air pollution problems, but also affects fine particulate nitrate. Due to emission control efforts, coarse PM decreased steadily. We find that the decrease of coarse PM is a major driver for a lack of decrease of fine particulate nitrate, as it allows more nitric acid to form fine particulate nitrate. The continuing decrease of coarse PM requires more stringent ammonia and nitrogen oxides emission controls.
Nadia K. Colombi, Daniel J. Jacob, Laura Hyesung Yang, Shixian Zhai, Viral Shah, Stuart K. Grange, Robert M. Yantosca, Soontae Kim, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4031–4044, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, 2023
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Surface ozone, detrimental to human and ecosystem health, is very high and increasing in South Korea. Using a global model of the atmosphere, we found that emissions from South Korea and China contribute equally to the high ozone observed. We found that in the absence of all anthropogenic emissions over East Asia, ozone is still very high, implying that the air quality standard in South Korea is not practically achievable unless this background external to East Asia can be decreased.
Lei Shu, Lei Zhu, Juseon Bak, Peter Zoogman, Han Han, Song Liu, Xicheng Li, Shuai Sun, Juan Li, Yuyang Chen, Dongchuan Pu, Xiaoxing Zuo, Weitao Fu, Xin Yang, and Tzung-May Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3731–3748, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3731-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3731-2023, 2023
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We quantify the benefit of multisource observations (GEMS, LEO satellite, and surface) on ozone simulations in Asia. Data assimilation improves the monitoring of exceedance, spatial pattern, and diurnal variation of surface ozone, with the regional mean bias reduced from −2.1 to −0.2 ppbv. Data assimilation also better represents ozone vertical distributions in the middle to upper troposphere at low latitudes. Our results offer a valuable reference for future ozone simulations.
Laura Hyesung Yang, Daniel J. Jacob, Nadia K. Colombi, Shixian Zhai, Kelvin H. Bates, Viral Shah, Ellie Beaudry, Robert M. Yantosca, Haipeng Lin, Jared F. Brewer, Heesung Chong, Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, Lok N. Lamsal, Ja-Ho Koo, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2465–2481, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2465-2023, 2023
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A geostationary satellite can now provide hourly NO2 vertical columns, and obtaining the NO2 vertical columns from space relies on NO2 vertical distribution from the chemical transport model (CTM). In this work, we update the CTM to better represent the chemistry environment so that the CTM can accurately provide NO2 vertical distribution. We also find that the changes in NO2 vertical distribution driven by a change in mixing depth play an important role in the NO2 column's diurnal variation.
Amir H. Souri, Matthew S. Johnson, Glenn M. Wolfe, James H. Crawford, Alan Fried, Armin Wisthaler, William H. Brune, Donald R. Blake, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Tijl Verhoelst, Steven Compernolle, Gaia Pinardi, Corinne Vigouroux, Bavo Langerock, Sungyeon Choi, Lok Lamsal, Lei Zhu, Shuai Sun, Ronald C. Cohen, Kyung-Eun Min, Changmin Cho, Sajeev Philip, Xiong Liu, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1963–1986, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1963-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1963-2023, 2023
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We have rigorously characterized different sources of error in satellite-based HCHO / NO2 tropospheric columns, a widely used metric for diagnosing near-surface ozone sensitivity. Specifically, the errors were categorized/quantified into (i) an inherent chemistry error, (ii) the decoupled relationship between columns and the near-surface concentration, (iii) the spatial representativeness error of ground satellite pixels, and (iv) the satellite retrieval errors.
Zolal Ayazpour, Shiqi Tao, Dan Li, Amy Jo Scarino, Ralph E. Kuehn, and Kang Sun
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 563–580, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-563-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-563-2023, 2023
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Accurate knowledge of the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is essential to study air pollution. However, PBLH observations are sparse in space and time, and PBLHs used in atmospheric models are often inaccurate. Using PBLH observations from the Aircraft Meteorological DAta Relay (AMDAR), we present a machine learning framework to produce a spatially complete PBLH product over the contiguous US that shows a better agreement with reference PBLH observations than commonly used PBLH products.
Joanna Joiner, Sergey Marchenko, Zachary Fasnacht, Lok Lamsal, Can Li, Alexander Vasilkov, and Nickolay Krotkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 481–500, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-481-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-481-2023, 2023
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an important trace gas for both air quality and climate. NO2 affects satellite ocean color products. A new ocean color instrument – OCI (Ocean Color Instrument) – will be launched in 2024 on a NASA satellite. We show that it will be possible to measure NO2 from OCI even though it was not designed for this. The techniques developed here, based on machine learning, can also be applied to instruments already in space to speed up algorithms and reduce the effects of noise.
Jing Wei, Zhanqing Li, Jun Wang, Can Li, Pawan Gupta, and Maureen Cribb
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1511–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, 2023
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This study estimated the daily seamless 10 km ambient gaseous pollutants (NO2, SO2, and CO) across China using machine learning with extensive input variables measured on monitors, satellites, and models. Our dataset yields a high data quality via cross-validation at varying spatiotemporal scales and outperforms most previous related studies, making it most helpful to future (especially short-term) air pollution and environmental health-related studies.
Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Lok N. Lamsal, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, K. Folkert Boersma, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Chelsea Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Ilana B. Pollack, Benjamin A. Nault, Ronald C. Cohen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Simone T. Andersen, Lucy J. Carpenter, Tomás Sherwen, and Mat J. Evans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1227–1257, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, 2023
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NOx in the free troposphere (above 2 km) affects global tropospheric chemistry and the retrieval and interpretation of satellite NO2 measurements. We evaluate free tropospheric NOx in global atmospheric chemistry models and find that recycling NOx from its reservoirs over the oceans is faster than that simulated in the models, resulting in increases in simulated tropospheric ozone and OH. Over the U.S., free tropospheric NO2 contributes the majority of the tropospheric NO2 column in summer.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Ihab Abboud, Nickolay Krotkov, Peter J. T. Leonard, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 75–93, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, 2023
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from three satellite instruments were used to update and extend the previously developed global catalogue of large SO2 emission sources. This version 2 of the global catalogue covers the period of 2005–2021 and includes a total of 759 continuously emitting point sources. The catalogue data show an approximate 50 % decline in global SO2 emissions between 2005 and 2021, although emissions were relatively stable during the last 3 years.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 99–117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, 2023
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We have prepared a unique and unusual result from the recent ATom aircraft mission: a measurement-based derivation of the production and loss rates of ozone and methane over the ocean basins. These are the key products of chemistry models used in assessments but have thus far lacked observational metrics. It also shows the scales of variability of atmospheric chemical rates and provides a major challenge to the atmospheric models.
Allison B. Marquardt Collow, Virginie Buchard, Peter R. Colarco, Arlindo M. da Silva, Ravi Govindaraju, Edward P. Nowottnick, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Chris Hostetler, and Luke Ziemba
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 16091–16109, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16091-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16091-2022, 2022
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Biomass burning aerosol impacts aspects of the atmosphere and Earth system through radiative forcing, serving as cloud condensation nuclei, and air quality. Despite its importance, the representation of biomass burning aerosol is not always accurate in models. Field campaign observations from CAMP2Ex are used to evaluate the mass and extinction of aerosols in the GEOS model. Notable biases in the model illuminate areas of future development with GEOS and the underlying GOCART aerosol module.
Pamela S. Rickly, Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Glenn M. Wolfe, Ryan Bennett, Ilann Bourgeois, John D. Crounse, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Maximilian Dollner, Emily M. Gargulinski, Samuel R. Hall, Hannah S. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem A. Hannun, Jin Liao, Richard Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Jeff Peischl, Claire E. Robinson, Thomas Ryerson, Kevin J. Sanchez, Manuel Schöberl, Amber J. Soja, Jason M. St. Clair, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Kirk Ullmann, Paul O. Wennberg, Bernadett Weinzierl, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, and Andrew W. Rollins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15603–15620, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, 2022
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Biomass burning sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission factors range from 0.27–1.1 g kg-1 C. Biomass burning SO2 can quickly form sulfate and organosulfur, but these pathways are dependent on liquid water content and pH. Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) appears to be directly emitted from some fire sources but is not the sole contributor to the organosulfur signal. It is shown that HMS and organosulfur chemistry may be an important S(IV) reservoir with the fate dependent on the surrounding conditions.
Randall V. Martin, Sebastian D. Eastham, Liam Bindle, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Thomas L. Clune, Christoph A. Keller, William Downs, Dandan Zhang, Robert A. Lucchesi, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Robert M. Yantosca, Yanshun Li, Lucas Estrada, William M. Putman, Benjamin M. Auer, Atanas L. Trayanov, Steven Pawson, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8731–8748, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8731-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8731-2022, 2022
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Atmospheric chemistry models must be able to operate both online as components of Earth system models and offline as standalone models. The widely used GEOS-Chem model operates both online and offline, but the classic offline version is not suitable for massively parallel simulations. We describe a new generation of the offline high-performance GEOS-Chem (GCHP) that enables high-resolution simulations on thousands of cores, including on the cloud, with improved access, performance, and accuracy.
Thibaud M. Fritz, Sebastian D. Eastham, Louisa K. Emmons, Haipeng Lin, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Steve Goldhaber, Steven R. H. Barrett, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8669–8704, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8669-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8669-2022, 2022
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We bring the state-of-the-science chemistry module GEOS-Chem into the Community Earth System Model (CESM). We show that some known differences between results from GEOS-Chem and CESM's CAM-chem chemistry module may be due to the configuration of model meteorology rather than inherent differences in the model chemistry. This is a significant step towards a truly modular Earth system model and allows two strong but currently separate research communities to benefit from each other's advances.
Amy Christiansen, Loretta J. Mickley, Junhua Liu, Luke D. Oman, and Lu Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14751–14782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14751-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14751-2022, 2022
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Understanding tropospheric ozone trends is crucial for accurate predictions of future air quality and climate, but drivers of trends are not well understood. We analyze global tropospheric ozone trends since 1980 using ozonesonde and surface measurements, and we evaluate two models for their ability to reproduce trends. We find observational evidence of increasing tropospheric ozone, but models underestimate these increases. This hinders our ability to estimate ozone radiative forcing.
Youhua Tang, Patrick C. Campbell, Pius Lee, Rick Saylor, Fanglin Yang, Barry Baker, Daniel Tong, Ariel Stein, Jianping Huang, Ho-Chun Huang, Li Pan, Jeff McQueen, Ivanka Stajner, Jose Tirado-Delgado, Youngsun Jung, Melissa Yang, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Tom Ryerson, Donald Blake, Joshua Schwarz, Jose-Luis Jimenez, James Crawford, Glenn Diskin, Richard Moore, Johnathan Hair, Greg Huey, Andrew Rollins, Jack Dibb, and Xiaoyang Zhang
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7977–7999, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7977-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7977-2022, 2022
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This paper compares two meteorological datasets for driving a regional air quality model: a regional meteorological model using WRF (WRF-CMAQ) and direct interpolation from an operational global model (GFS-CMAQ). In the comparison with surface measurements and aircraft data in summer 2019, these two methods show mixed performance depending on the corresponding meteorological settings. Direct interpolation is found to be a viable method to drive air quality models.
Vanessa Selimovic, Damien Ketcherside, Sreelekha Chaliyakunnel, Catherine Wielgasz, Wade Permar, Hélène Angot, Dylan B. Millet, Alan Fried, Detlev Helmig, and Lu Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14037–14058, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14037-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14037-2022, 2022
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Arctic warming has led to an increase in plants that emit gases in response to stress, but how these gases affect regional chemistry is largely unknown due to lack of observational data. Here we present the most comprehensive gas-phase measurements for this area to date and compare them to predictions from a global transport model. We report 78 gas-phase species and investigate their importance to atmospheric chemistry in the area, with broader implications for similar plant types.
Haolin Wang, Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Owen R. Cooper, Kai-Lan Chang, Ke Li, Meng Gao, Yiming Liu, Bosi Sheng, Kai Wu, Tongwen Wu, Jie Zhang, Bastien Sauvage, Philippe Nédélec, Romain Blot, and Shaojia Fan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13753–13782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13753-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13753-2022, 2022
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We report significant global tropospheric ozone increases in 1995–2017 based on extensive aircraft and ozonesonde observations. Using GEOS-Chem (Goddard Earth Observing System chemistry model) multi-decadal global simulations, we find that changes in global anthropogenic emissions, in particular the rapid increases in aircraft emissions, contribute significantly to the increases in tropospheric ozone and resulting radiative impact.
Eva-Lou Edwards, Jeffrey S. Reid, Peng Xian, Sharon P. Burton, Anthony L. Cook, Ewan C. Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Sean W. Freeman, John W. Hair, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Claire E. Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Michael A. Shook, G. Alexander Sokolowsky, Susan C. van den Heever, Edward L. Winstead, Sarah Woods, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12961–12983, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12961-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12961-2022, 2022
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This study compares NAAPS-RA model simulations of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and extinction to those retrieved with a high spectral resolution lidar near the Philippines. Agreement for AOT was good, and extinction agreement was strongest below 1500 m. Substituting dropsonde relative humidities into NAAPS-RA did not drastically improve agreement, and we discuss potential reasons why. Accurately modeling future conditions in this region is crucial due to its susceptibility to climate change.
Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Fei Liu, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Vitali Fioletov, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5497–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations provide information on the sources of SO2, an important pollutant that affects both air quality and climate. However, these observations suffer from relatively poor data quality due to weak signals of SO2. Here, we use a machine learning technique to analyze satellite SO2 observations in order to reduce the noise and artifacts over relatively clean areas while keeping the signals near pollution sources. This leads to significant improvement in satellite SO2 data.
Maria Paula Pérez-Peña, Jenny A. Fisher, Dylan B. Millet, Hisashi Yashiro, Ray L. Langenfelds, Paul B. Krummel, and Scott H. Kable
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12367–12386, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12367-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12367-2022, 2022
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We used two atmospheric models to test the implications of previously unexplored aldehyde photochemistry on the atmospheric levels of molecular hydrogen (H2). We showed that the new photochemistry from aldehydes produces more H2 over densely forested areas. Compared to the rest of the world, it is over these forested regions where the produced H2 is more likely to be removed. The results highlight that other processes that contribute to atmospheric H2 levels should be studied further.
Lu Shen, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Alba Lorente, David Lyon, Jianxiong Sheng, Daniel J. Varon, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Xiao Lu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Steven P. Hamburg, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, 2022
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We use 22 months of TROPOMI satellite observations to quantity methane emissions from the oil (O) and natural gas (G) sector in the US and Canada at the scale of both individual basins as well as country-wide aggregates. We find that O/G-related methane emissions are underestimated in these inventories by 80 % for the US and 40 % for Canada, and 70 % of the underestimate in the US is from five O/G basins, including Permian, Haynesville, Anadarko, Eagle Ford, and Barnett.
Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, J. Andrew Neuman, Steven S. Brown, Hannah M. Allen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Matthew M. Coggon, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Jessica B. Gilman, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Hongyu Guo, Hannah A. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Christopher D. Holmes, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Aaron D. Lamplugh, Young Ro Lee, Jakob Lindaas, Richard H. Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Demetrios Pagonis, Pamela S. Rickly, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Vanessa Selimovic, Jason M. St. Clair, David Tanner, Krystal T. Vasquez, Patrick R. Veres, Carsten Warneke, Paul O. Wennberg, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Caroline C. Womack, Lu Xu, Kyle J. Zarzana, and Thomas B. Ryerson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4901–4930, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4901-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4901-2022, 2022
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Understanding fire emission impacts on the atmosphere is key to effective air quality management and requires accurate measurements. We present a comparison of airborne measurements of key atmospheric species in ambient air and in fire smoke. We show that most instruments performed within instrument uncertainties. In some cases, further work is needed to fully characterize instrument performance. Comparing independent measurements using different techniques is important to assess their accuracy.
Shang Liu, Barbara Barletta, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Alan Fried, Jeff Peischl, Simone Meinardi, Matthew Coggon, Aaron Lamplugh, Jessica B. Gilman, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Carsten Warneke, Eric C. Apel, Alan J. Hills, Ilann Bourgeois, James Walega, Petter Weibring, Dirk Richter, Toshihiro Kuwayama, Michael FitzGibbon, and Donald Blake
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10937–10954, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10937-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10937-2022, 2022
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California’s ozone persistently exceeds the air quality standards. We studied the spatial distribution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that produce ozone over the most polluted regions in California using aircraft measurements. We find that the oxygenated VOCs have the highest ozone formation potential. Spatially, biogenic VOCs are important during high ozone episodes in the South Coast Air Basin, while dairy emissions may be critical for ozone production in San Joaquin Valley.
Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Jacob, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Alba Lorente, Daniel J. Varon, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Elise Penn, and Xueying Yu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10809–10826, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10809-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10809-2022, 2022
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We quantify methane emissions in China and contributions from different sectors by inverse analysis of 2019 TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane. We find that anthropogenic methane emissions for China are underestimated in the national inventory. Our estimate of emissions indicates a small life-cycle loss rate, implying net climate benefits from the current
coal-to-gasenergy transition in China. However, this small loss rate can be misleading given China's high gas imports.
Nicolas Theys, Christophe Lerot, Hugues Brenot, Jeroen van Gent, Isabelle De Smedt, Lieven Clarisse, Mike Burton, Matthew Varnam, Catherine Hayer, Benjamin Esse, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4801–4817, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4801-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4801-2022, 2022
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Sulfur dioxide plume height after a volcanic eruption is an important piece of information for many different scientific studies and applications. Satellite UV retrievals are useful in this respect, but available algorithms have shown so far limited sensitivity to SO2 height. Here we present a new technique to improve the retrieval of SO2 plume height for SO2 columns as low as 5 DU. We demonstrate the algorithm using TROPOMI measurements and compare with other height estimates.
Pieternel F. Levelt, Deborah C. Stein Zweers, Ilse Aben, Maite Bauwens, Tobias Borsdorff, Isabelle De Smedt, Henk J. Eskes, Christophe Lerot, Diego G. Loyola, Fabian Romahn, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Nicolas Theys, Michel Van Roozendael, J. Pepijn Veefkind, and Tijl Verhoelst
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10319–10351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10319-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10319-2022, 2022
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Using the COVID-19 lockdown periods as an example, we show how Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI trace gas data (NO2, SO2, CO, HCHO and CHOCHO) can be used to understand impacts on air quality for regions and cities around the globe. We also provide information for both experienced and inexperienced users about how we created the data using state-of-the-art algorithms, where to get the data, methods taking meteorological and seasonal variability into consideration, and insights for future studies.
Aditya Kumar, R. Bradley Pierce, Ravan Ahmadov, Gabriel Pereira, Saulo Freitas, Georg Grell, Chris Schmidt, Allen Lenzen, Joshua P. Schwarz, Anne E. Perring, Joseph M. Katich, John Hair, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, and Hongyu Guo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10195–10219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10195-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10195-2022, 2022
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We use the WRF-Chem model with new implementations of GOES-16 wildfire emissions and plume rise based on fire radiative power (FRP) to interpret aerosol observations during the 2019 NASA–NOAA FIREX-AQ field campaign and perform model evaluations. The model shows significant improvements in simulating the variety of aerosol loading environments sampled during FIREX-AQ. Our results also highlight the importance of accurate wildfire diurnal cycle and aerosol chemical mechanisms in models.
Harshvardhan Harshvardhan, Richard Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Johnathan Hair, Chris Hostetler, David Harper, Anthony Cook, Marta Fenn, Amy Jo Scarino, Eduard Chemyakin, and Detlef Müller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9859–9876, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9859-2022, 2022
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The evolution of aerosol in biomass burning smoke plumes that travel over marine clouds off the Atlantic coast of central Africa was studied using measurements made by a lidar deployed on a high-altitude aircraft. The main finding was that the physical properties of aerosol do not change appreciably once the plume has left land and travels over the ocean over a timescale of 1 to 2 d. Almost all particles in the plume are of radius less than 1 micrometer and spherical in shape.
Daniel J. Jacob, Daniel J. Varon, Daniel H. Cusworth, Philip E. Dennison, Christian Frankenberg, Ritesh Gautam, Luis Guanter, John Kelley, Jason McKeever, Lesley E. Ott, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Qu, Andrew K. Thorpe, John R. Worden, and Riley M. Duren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9617–9646, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, 2022
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We review the capability of satellite observations of atmospheric methane to quantify methane emissions on all scales. We cover retrieval methods, precision requirements, inverse methods for inferring emissions, source detection thresholds, and observations of system completeness. We show that current instruments already enable quantification of regional and national emissions including contributions from large point sources. Coverage and resolution will increase significantly in coming years.
Daniel J. Varon, Daniel J. Jacob, Melissa Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, William B. Downs, Lu Shen, Sarah E. Hancock, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Elise Penn, Zichong Chen, Xiao Lu, Alba Lorente, Ashutosh Tewari, and Cynthia A. Randles
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 5787–5805, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5787-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5787-2022, 2022
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Reducing atmospheric methane emissions is critical to slow near-term climate change. Globally surveying satellite instruments like the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) have unique capabilities for monitoring atmospheric methane around the world. Here we present a user-friendly cloud-computing tool that enables researchers and stakeholders to quantify methane emissions across user-selected regions of interest using TROPOMI satellite observations.
Simon Kirschler, Christiane Voigt, Bruce Anderson, Ramon Campos Braga, Gao Chen, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan Crosbie, Hossein Dadashazar, Richard A. Ferrare, Valerian Hahn, Johannes Hendricks, Stefan Kaufmann, Richard Moore, Mira L. Pöhlker, Claire Robinson, Amy J. Scarino, Dominik Schollmayer, Michael A. Shook, K. Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8299–8319, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8299-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8299-2022, 2022
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In this study we show that the vertical velocity dominantly impacts the cloud droplet number concentration (NC) of low-level clouds over the western North Atlantic in the winter and summer season, while the cloud condensation nuclei concentration, aerosol size distribution and chemical composition impact NC within a season. The observational data presented in this study can evaluate and improve the representation of aerosol–cloud interactions for a wide range of conditions.
Dongwei Fu, Larry Di Girolamo, Robert M. Rauber, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Jesse Loveridge, Yulan Hong, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Paul Lawson, Sarah Woods, Simone Tanelli, Sebastian Schmidt, Chris Hostetler, and Amy Jo Scarino
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8259–8285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8259-2022, 2022
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Satellite-retrieved cloud microphysics are widely used in climate research because of their central role in water and energy cycles. Here, we provide the first detailed investigation of retrieved cloud drop sizes from in situ and various satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques applied to real cumulus cloud fields. We conclude that the most widely used passive remote sensing method employed in climate research produces high biases of 6–8 µm (60 %–80 %) caused by 3-D radiative effects.
Kang Sun, Mahdi Yousefi, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Gonzalo González Abad, Iouli E. Gordon, Xiong Liu, Ewan O'Sullivan, Christopher E. Sioris, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3721–3745, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, 2022
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This study of upper atmospheric airglow from oxygen is motivated by the need to measure oxygen simultaneously with methane and CO2 in satellite remote sensing. We provide an accurate understanding of the spatial, temporal, and spectral distribution of airglow emissions, which will help in the satellite remote sensing of greenhouse gases and constraining the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere.
Tianlang Zhao, Jingqiu Mao, William R. Simpson, Isabelle De Smedt, Lei Zhu, Thomas F. Hanisco, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Barbara Barletta, Simone Meinardi, Donald R. Blake, Eric C. Apel, and Rebecca S. Hornbrook
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7163–7178, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7163-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7163-2022, 2022
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Monitoring formaldehyde (HCHO) can help us understand Arctic vegetation change. Here, we compare satellite data and model and show that Alaska summertime HCHO is largely dominated by a background from methane oxidation during mild wildfire years and is dominated by wildfire (largely from direct emission of fire) during strong fire years. Consequently, it is challenging to use satellite HCHO to study vegetation change in the Arctic region.
John R. Worden, Daniel H. Cusworth, Zhen Qu, Yi Yin, Yuzhong Zhang, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, Brendan K. Byrne, Tia Scarpelli, Joannes D. Maasakkers, David Crisp, Riley Duren, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6811–6841, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6811-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6811-2022, 2022
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This paper is intended to accomplish two goals: 1) describe a new algorithm by which remotely sensed measurements of methane or other tracers can be used to not just quantify methane fluxes, but also attribute these fluxes to specific sources and regions and characterize their uncertainties, and 2) use this new algorithm to provide methane emissions by sector and country in support of the global stock take.
Zhujun Li, David Painemal, Gregory Schuster, Marian Clayton, Richard Ferrare, Mark Vaughan, Damien Josset, Jayanta Kar, and Charles Trepte
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2745–2766, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2745-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2745-2022, 2022
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For more than 15 years, CALIPSO has revolutionized our understanding of the role of aerosols in climate. Here we evaluate CALIPSO aerosol typing over the ocean using an independent CALIPSO–CloudSat product. The analysis suggests that CALIPSO correctly categorizes clean marine aerosol over the open ocean, elevated smoke over the SE Atlantic, and dust over the tropical Atlantic. Similarities between clean and dusty marine over the open ocean implies that algorithm modifications are warranted.
Glenn M. Wolfe, Thomas F. Hanisco, Heather L. Arkinson, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Tomas Mikoviny, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilana Pollack, Jeff Peischl, Paul O. Wennberg, John D. Crounse, Jason M. St. Clair, Alex Teng, L. Gregory Huey, Xiaoxi Liu, Alan Fried, Petter Weibring, Dirk Richter, James Walega, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, T. Paul Bui, Glenn Diskin, James R. Podolske, Glen Sachse, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4253–4275, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4253-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4253-2022, 2022
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Smoke plumes are chemically complex. This work combines airborne observations of smoke plume composition with a photochemical model to probe the production of ozone and the fate of reactive gases in the outflow of a large wildfire. Model–measurement comparisons illustrate how uncertain emissions and chemical processes propagate into simulated chemical evolution. Results provide insight into how this system responds to perturbations, which can help guide future observation and modeling efforts.
Tia R. Scarpelli, Daniel J. Jacob, Shayna Grossman, Xiao Lu, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Yuzhong Zhang, Frances Reuland, Deborah Gordon, and John R. Worden
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3235–3249, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3235-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3235-2022, 2022
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We present a spatially explicit version of the national inventories of oil, gas, and coal methane emissions as submitted by individual countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2021. We then use atmospheric modeling to compare our inventory emissions to atmospheric methane observations with the goal of identifying potential under- and overestimates of oil–gas methane emissions in the national inventories.
Drew C. Pendergrass, Shixian Zhai, Jhoon Kim, Ja-Ho Koo, Seoyoung Lee, Minah Bae, Soontae Kim, Hong Liao, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1075–1091, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1075-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1075-2022, 2022
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This paper uses a machine learning algorithm to infer high-resolution maps of particulate air quality in eastern China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula, using data from a geostationary satellite along with meteorology. We then perform an extensive evaluation of this inferred air quality and use it to diagnose trends in the region. We hope this paper and the associated data will be valuable to other scientists interested in epidemiology, air quality, remote sensing, and machine learning.
Kevin J. Sanchez, Bo Zhang, Hongyu Liu, Matthew D. Brown, Ewan C. Crosbie, Francesca Gallo, Johnathan W. Hair, Chris A. Hostetler, Carolyn E. Jordan, Claire E. Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, Georges Saliba, Savannah L. Lewis, Lynn M. Russell, Patricia K. Quinn, Timothy S. Bates, Jack Porter, Thomas G. Bell, Peter Gaube, Eric S. Saltzman, Michael J. Behrenfeld, and Richard H. Moore
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2795–2815, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2795-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2795-2022, 2022
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Atmospheric particle concentrations impact clouds, which strongly impact the amount of sunlight reflected back into space and the overall climate. Measurements of particles over the ocean are rare and expensive to collect, so models are necessary to fill in the gaps by simulating both particle and clouds. However, some measurements are needed to test the accuracy of the models. Here, we measure changes in particles in different weather conditions, which are ideal for comparison with models.
Lu Shen, Daniel J. Jacob, Mauricio Santillana, Kelvin Bates, Jiawei Zhuang, and Wei Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 1677–1687, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1677-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1677-2022, 2022
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The high computational cost of chemical integration is a long-standing limitation in global atmospheric chemistry models. Here we present an adaptive and efficient algorithm that can reduce the computational time of atmospheric chemistry by 50 % and maintain the error below 2 % for important species, inspired by machine learning clustering techniques and traditional asymptotic analysis ideas.
Dongwook Kim, Changmin Cho, Seokhan Jeong, Soojin Lee, Benjamin A. Nault, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Jason C. Schroder, Jose L. Jimenez, Rainer Volkamer, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Alan Fried, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sally E. Pusede, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, L. Gregory Huey, David J. Tanner, Jack Dibb, Christoph J. Knote, and Kyung-Eun Min
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 805–821, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, 2022
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CHOCHO was simulated using a 0-D box model constrained by measurements during the KORUS-AQ mission. CHOCHO concentration was high in large cities, aromatics being the most important precursors. Loss path to aerosol was the highest sink, contributing to ~ 20 % of secondary organic aerosol formation. Our work highlights that simple CHOCHO surface uptake approach is valid only for low aerosol conditions and more work is required to understand CHOCHO solubility in high-aerosol conditions.
Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Haolin Wang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John R. Worden, Shaojia Fan, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Ritesh Gautam, Deborah Gordon, Michael D. Moran, Frances Reuland, Claudia A. Octaviano Villasana, and Arlyn Andrews
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 395–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, 2022
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We evaluate methane emissions and trends for 2010–2017 in the gridded national emission inventories for the United States, Canada, and Mexico by inversion of in situ and satellite methane observations. We find that anthropogenic methane emissions for all three countries are underestimated in the national inventories, largely driven by oil emissions. Anthropogenic methane emissions in the US peak in 2014, in contrast to the report of a steadily decreasing trend over 2010–2017 from the US EPA.
Andrew Zammit-Mangion, Michael Bertolacci, Jenny Fisher, Ann Stavert, Matthew Rigby, Yi Cao, and Noel Cressie
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 45–73, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-45-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-45-2022, 2022
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We present a framework for estimating the sources and sinks (flux) of carbon dioxide from satellite data. The framework is statistical and yields measures of uncertainty alongside all estimates of flux and other parameters in the underlying model. It also allows us to generate other insights, such as the size of errors and biases in the data. The primary aim of this research was to develop a fully statistical flux inversion framework for use by atmospheric scientists.
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Rich Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, Marc Mallet, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 61–77, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-61-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-61-2022, 2022
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This work presents heating rates derived from aircraft observations from the 2016 and 2017 field campaigns of ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS). We separate the total heating rates into aerosol and gas (primarily water vapor) absorption and explore some of the co-variability of heating rate profiles and their primary drivers, leading to the development of a new concept: the heating rate efficiency (HRE; the heating rate per unit aerosol extinction).
Amir H. Souri, Kelly Chance, Kang Sun, Xiong Liu, and Matthew S. Johnson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 41–59, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-41-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-41-2022, 2022
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The central component of satellite and model validation is pointwise measurements. A point is an element of space, whereas satellite (model) pixels represent an averaged area. These two datasets are inherently different. We leveraged some geostatistical tools to transform discrete points to gridded data with quantified uncertainty, comparable to satellite footprint (and response functions). This in part alleviated some complications concerning point–pixel comparisons.
Sarah J. Doherty, Pablo E. Saide, Paquita Zuidema, Yohei Shinozuka, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Hamish Gordon, Marc Mallet, Kerry Meyer, David Painemal, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, James R. Podolske, Sharon P. Burton, Richard A. Ferrare, Calvin Howes, Pierre Nabat, Gregory R. Carmichael, Arlindo da Silva, Kristina Pistone, Ian Chang, Lan Gao, Robert Wood, and Jens Redemann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1–46, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1-2022, 2022
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Between July and October, biomass burning smoke is advected over the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, leading to climate forcing. Model calculations of forcing by this plume vary significantly in both magnitude and sign. This paper compares aerosol and cloud properties observed during three NASA ORACLES field campaigns to the same in four models. It quantifies modeled biases in properties key to aerosol direct radiative forcing and evaluates how these biases propagate to biases in forcing.
Catherine Hardacre, Jane P. Mulcahy, Richard J. Pope, Colin G. Jones, Steven T. Rumbold, Can Li, Colin Johnson, and Steven T. Turnock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18465–18497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18465-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18465-2021, 2021
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We investigate UKESM1's ability to represent the sulfur (S) cycle in the recent historical period. The S cycle is a key driver of historical radiative forcing. Earth system models such as UKESM1 should represent the S cycle well so that we can have confidence in their projections of future climate. We compare UKESM1 to observations of sulfur compounds, finding that the model generally performs well. We also identify areas for UKESM1’s development, focussing on how SO2 is removed from the air.
Jin Liao, Glenn M. Wolfe, Reem A. Hannun, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jessica B. Gilman, Aaron Lamplugh, Vanessa Selimovic, Glenn S. Diskin, John B. Nowak, Hannah S. Halliday, Joshua P. DiGangi, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Christopher D. Holmes, Charles H. Fite, Anxhelo Agastra, Thomas B. Ryerson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Carsten Warneke, Matthew M. Coggon, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Kanako Sekimoto, Alan Fried, Dirk Richter, Petter Weibring, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Steven S. Brown, Caroline C. Womack, Michael A. Robinson, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Patrick R. Veres, and J. Andrew Neuman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18319–18331, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18319-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18319-2021, 2021
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Formaldehyde (HCHO) is an important oxidant precursor and affects the formation of O3 and other secondary pollutants in wildfire plumes. We disentangle the processes controlling HCHO evolution from wildfire plumes sampled by NASA DC-8 during FIREX-AQ. We find that OH abundance rather than normalized OH reactivity is the main driver of fire-to-fire variability in HCHO secondary production and estimate an effective HCHO yield per volatile organic compound molecule oxidized in wildfire plumes.
Kelvin H. Bates, Daniel J. Jacob, Ke Li, Peter D. Ivatt, Mat J. Evans, Yingying Yan, and Jintai Lin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18351–18374, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18351-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18351-2021, 2021
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Simple aromatic compounds (benzene, toluene, xylene) have complex gas-phase chemistry that is inconsistently represented in atmospheric models. We compile recent experimental and theoretical insights to develop a new mechanism for gas-phase aromatic oxidation that is sufficiently compact for use in multiscale models. We compare our new mechanism to chamber experiments and other mechanisms, and implement it in a global model to quantify the impacts of aromatic oxidation on tropospheric chemistry.
Amir H. Souri, Kelly Chance, Juseon Bak, Caroline R. Nowlan, Gonzalo González Abad, Yeonjin Jung, David C. Wong, Jingqiu Mao, and Xiong Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18227–18245, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18227-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18227-2021, 2021
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The global pandemic is believed to have an impact on emissions of air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO). This study quantifies the changes in the amount of NOx and VOC emissions via state-of-the-art inverse modeling technique using satellite observations during the lockdown 2020 with respect to a baseline over Europe, which in turn, it permits unraveling atmospheric processes being responsible for ozone formation in a less cloudy month.
Sabour Baray, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Dylan B. A. Jones, A. Anthony Bloom, and Robert McLaren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18101–18121, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18101-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18101-2021, 2021
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We use 2010–2015 surface and satellite observations to disentangle methane from anthropogenic and natural sources in Canada. Using a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem), the mismatch between modelled and observed methane concentrations can be used to infer emissions according to Bayesian statistics. Compared to prior knowledge, we show higher anthropogenic emissions attributed to energy and/or agriculture in Western Canada and lower natural emissions from Boreal wetlands.
Christophe Lerot, François Hendrick, Michel Van Roozendael, Leonardo M. A. Alvarado, Andreas Richter, Isabelle De Smedt, Nicolas Theys, Jonas Vlietinck, Huan Yu, Jeroen Van Gent, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Jean-François Müller, Pieter Valks, Diego Loyola, Hitoshi Irie, Vinod Kumar, Thomas Wagner, Stefan F. Schreier, Vinayak Sinha, Ting Wang, Pucai Wang, and Christian Retscher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7775–7807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7775-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7775-2021, 2021
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Global measurements of glyoxal tropospheric columns from the satellite instrument TROPOMI are presented. Such measurements can contribute to the estimation of atmospheric emissions of volatile organic compounds. This new glyoxal product has been fully characterized with a comprehensive error budget, with comparison with other satellite data sets as well as with validation based on independent ground-based remote sensing glyoxal observations.
Nick Gorkavyi, Nickolay Krotkov, Can Li, Leslie Lait, Peter Colarco, Simon Carn, Matthew DeLand, Paul Newman, Mark Schoeberl, Ghassan Taha, Omar Torres, Alexander Vasilkov, and Joanna Joiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7545–7563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, 2021
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The 21 June 2019 eruption of the Raikoke volcano produced significant amounts of volcanic aerosols (sulfate and ash) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas that penetrated into the lower stratosphere. We showed that the amount of SO2 decreases with a characteristic period of 8–18 d and the peak of sulfate aerosol lags the initial peak of SO2 by 1.5 months. We also examined the dynamics of an unusual stratospheric coherent circular cloud of SO2 and aerosol observed from 18 July to 22 September 2019.
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Jared F. Brewer, Ke Li, Jonathan M. Moch, Jhoon Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Hyunkwang Lim, Hyun Chul Lee, Su Keun Kuk, Rokjin J. Park, Jaein I. Jeong, Xuan Wang, Pengfei Liu, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jun Meng, Randall V. Martin, Katherine R. Travis, Johnathan W. Hair, Bruce E. Anderson, Jack E. Dibb, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Qiang Zhang, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16775–16791, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, 2021
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Geostationary satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) has tremendous potential for monitoring surface fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Our study explored the physical relationship between AOD and PM2.5 by integrating data from surface networks, aircraft, and satellites with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We quantitatively showed that accurate simulation of aerosol size distributions, boundary layer depths, relative humidity, coarse particles, and diurnal variations in PM2.5 are essential.
Nicolas Theys, Vitali Fioletov, Can Li, Isabelle De Smedt, Christophe Lerot, Chris McLinden, Nickolay Krotkov, Debora Griffin, Lieven Clarisse, Pascal Hedelt, Diego Loyola, Thomas Wagner, Vinod Kumar, Antje Innes, Roberto Ribas, François Hendrick, Jonas Vlietinck, Hugues Brenot, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16727–16744, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, 2021
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We present a new algorithm to retrieve sulfur dioxide from space UV measurements. We apply the technique to high-resolution TROPOMI measurements and demonstrate the high sensitivity of the approach to weak SO2 emissions worldwide with an unprecedented limit of detection of 8 kt yr−1. This result has broad implications for atmospheric science studies dealing with improving emission inventories and identifying and quantifying missing sources, in the context of air quality and climate.
Hossein Dadashazar, Majid Alipanah, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Ewan Crosbie, Simon Kirschler, Hongyu Liu, Richard H. Moore, Andrew J. Peters, Amy Jo Scarino, Michael Shook, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Hailong Wang, Edward Winstead, Bo Zhang, Luke Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16121–16141, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16121-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16121-2021, 2021
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This study investigates precipitation impacts on long-range transport of North American outflow over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO). Results demonstrate that precipitation scavenging plays a significant role in modifying surface aerosol concentrations over the WNAO, especially in winter and spring due to large-scale scavenging processes. This study highlights how precipitation impacts surface aerosol properties with relevance for other marine regions vulnerable to continental outflow.
Liam Bindle, Randall V. Martin, Matthew J. Cooper, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Sebastian D. Eastham, Benjamin M. Auer, Thomas L. Clune, Hongjian Weng, Jintai Lin, Lee T. Murray, Jun Meng, Christoph A. Keller, William M. Putman, Steven Pawson, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5977–5997, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5977-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5977-2021, 2021
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Atmospheric chemistry models like GEOS-Chem are versatile tools widely used in air pollution and climate studies. The simulations used in such studies can be very computationally demanding, and thus it is useful if the model can simulate a specific geographic region at a higher resolution than the rest of the globe. Here, we implement, test, and demonstrate a new variable-resolution capability in GEOS-Chem that is suitable for simulations conducted on supercomputers.
Xinxin Ye, Pargoal Arab, Ravan Ahmadov, Eric James, Georg A. Grell, Bradley Pierce, Aditya Kumar, Paul Makar, Jack Chen, Didier Davignon, Greg R. Carmichael, Gonzalo Ferrada, Jeff McQueen, Jianping Huang, Rajesh Kumar, Louisa Emmons, Farren L. Herron-Thorpe, Mark Parrington, Richard Engelen, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Arlindo da Silva, Amber Soja, Emily Gargulinski, Elizabeth Wiggins, Johnathan W. Hair, Marta Fenn, Taylor Shingler, Shobha Kondragunta, Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Brent Holben, David M. Giles, and Pablo E. Saide
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14427–14469, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, 2021
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Wildfire smoke has crucial impacts on air quality, while uncertainties in the numerical forecasts remain significant. We present an evaluation of 12 real-time forecasting systems. Comparison of predicted smoke emissions suggests a large spread in magnitudes, with temporal patterns deviating from satellite detections. The performance for AOD and surface PM2.5 and their discrepancies highlighted the role of accurately represented spatiotemporal emission profiles in improving smoke forecasts.
Zhen Qu, Daniel J. Jacob, Lu Shen, Xiao Lu, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Joannes D. Maasakkers, A. Anthony Bloom, John R. Worden, Robert J. Parker, and Alba L. Delgado
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14159–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, 2021
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The recent launch of TROPOMI offers an unprecedented opportunity to quantify the methane budget from a top-down perspective. We use TROPOMI and the more mature GOSAT methane observations to estimate methane emissions and get consistent global budgets. However, TROPOMI shows biases over regions where surface albedo is small and provides less information for the coarse-resolution inversion due to the larger error correlations and spatial variations in the number of observations.
Lee T. Murray, Eric M. Leibensperger, Clara Orbe, Loretta J. Mickley, and Melissa Sulprizio
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5789–5823, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5789-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5789-2021, 2021
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Chemical-transport models are tools used to study air pollution and inform public policy. However, they are limited by the availability of archived meteorology. Here, we describe how the GEOS-Chem chemical-transport model may now be driven by meteorology archived from a state-of-the-art general circulation model for past and future climates, allowing it to be used to explore the impact of climate change on air pollution and atmospheric composition.
Xuan Wang, Daniel J. Jacob, William Downs, Shuting Zhai, Lei Zhu, Viral Shah, Christopher D. Holmes, Tomás Sherwen, Becky Alexander, Mathew J. Evans, Sebastian D. Eastham, J. Andrew Neuman, Patrick R. Veres, Theodore K. Koenig, Rainer Volkamer, L. Gregory Huey, Thomas J. Bannan, Carl J. Percival, Ben H. Lee, and Joel A. Thornton
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13973–13996, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13973-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13973-2021, 2021
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Halogen radicals have a broad range of implications for tropospheric chemistry, air quality, and climate. We present a new mechanistic description and comprehensive simulation of tropospheric halogens in a global 3-D model and compare the model results with surface and aircraft measurements. We find that halogen chemistry decreases the global tropospheric burden of ozone by 11 %, NOx by 6 %, and OH by 4 %.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13729–13746, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, 2021
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The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission built a climatology of the chemical composition of tropospheric air parcels throughout the middle of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The level of detail allows us to reconstruct the photochemical budgets of O3 and CH4 over these vast, remote regions. We find that most of the chemical heterogeneity is captured at the resolution used in current global chemistry models and that the majority of reactivity occurs in the
hottest20 % of parcels.
Haipeng Lin, Daniel J. Jacob, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Christoph A. Keller, Thibaud M. Fritz, Sebastian D. Eastham, Louisa K. Emmons, Patrick C. Campbell, Barry Baker, Rick D. Saylor, and Raffaele Montuoro
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5487–5506, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5487-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5487-2021, 2021
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Emissions are a central component of atmospheric chemistry models. The Harmonized Emissions Component (HEMCO) is a software component for computing emissions from a user-selected ensemble of emission inventories and algorithms. It allows users to select, add, and scale emissions from different sources through a configuration file with no change to the model source code. We demonstrate the implementation of HEMCO in several models, all sharing the same HEMCO core code and database library.
Yi Yin, Frederic Chevallier, Philippe Ciais, Philippe Bousquet, Marielle Saunois, Bo Zheng, John Worden, A. Anthony Bloom, Robert J. Parker, Daniel J. Jacob, Edward J. Dlugokencky, and Christian Frankenberg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12631–12647, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12631-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12631-2021, 2021
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The growth of methane, the second-most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, has been accelerating in recent years. Using an ensemble of multi-tracer atmospheric inversions constrained by surface or satellite observations, we show that global methane emissions increased by nearly 1 % per year from 2010–2017, with leading contributions from the tropics and East Asia.
Isabelle De Smedt, Gaia Pinardi, Corinne Vigouroux, Steven Compernolle, Alkis Bais, Nuria Benavent, Folkert Boersma, Ka-Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Pascal Hedelt, François Hendrick, Hitoshi Irie, Vinod Kumar, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Bavo Langerock, Christophe Lerot, Cheng Liu, Diego Loyola, Ankie Piters, Andreas Richter, Claudia Rivera Cárdenas, Fabian Romahn, Robert George Ryan, Vinayak Sinha, Nicolas Theys, Jonas Vlietinck, Thomas Wagner, Ting Wang, Huan Yu, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12561–12593, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, 2021
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This paper assess the performances of the TROPOMI formaldehyde observations compared to its predecessor OMI at different spatial and temporal scales. We also use a global network of MAX-DOAS instruments to validate both satellite datasets for a large range of HCHO columns. The precision obtained with daily TROPOMI observations is comparable to monthly OMI observations. We present clear detection of weak HCHO column enhancements related to shipping emissions in the Indian Ocean.
Hannah Nesser, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Yuzhong Zhang, and Chris H. Rycroft
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5521–5534, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5521-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5521-2021, 2021
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Analytical inversions of satellite observations of atmospheric composition can improve emissions estimates and quantify errors but are computationally expensive at high resolutions. We propose two methods to decrease this cost. The methods reproduce a high-resolution inversion at a quarter of the cost. The reduced-dimension method creates a multiscale grid. The reduced-rank method solves the inversion where information content is highest.
Daniel Pérez-Ramírez, David N. Whiteman, Igor Veselovskii, Richard Ferrare, Gloria Titos, María José Granados-Muñoz, Guadalupe Sánchez-Hernández, and Francisco Navas-Guzmán
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12021–12048, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12021-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12021-2021, 2021
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This paper shows how aerosol hygroscopicity enhances the vertical profile of aerosol backscattering and extinction. The study is possible thanks to the large set of remote sensing instruments and focuses on the the Baltimore–Washington DC metropolitan area during hot and humid summer days with very relevant anthropogenic emission aerosol sources. The results illustrate how the combination of aerosol emissions and meteorological conditions ultimately alters the aerosol radiative forcing.
Benjamin A. Nault, Duseong S. Jo, Brian C. McDonald, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Weiwei Hu, Jason C. Schroder, James Allan, Donald R. Blake, Manjula R. Canagaratna, Hugh Coe, Matthew M. Coggon, Peter F. DeCarlo, Glenn S. Diskin, Rachel Dunmore, Frank Flocke, Alan Fried, Jessica B. Gilman, Georgios Gkatzelis, Jacqui F. Hamilton, Thomas F. Hanisco, Patrick L. Hayes, Daven K. Henze, Alma Hodzic, James Hopkins, Min Hu, L. Greggory Huey, B. Thomas Jobson, William C. Kuster, Alastair Lewis, Meng Li, Jin Liao, M. Omar Nawaz, Ilana B. Pollack, Jeffrey Peischl, Bernhard Rappenglück, Claire E. Reeves, Dirk Richter, James M. Roberts, Thomas B. Ryerson, Min Shao, Jacob M. Sommers, James Walega, Carsten Warneke, Petter Weibring, Glenn M. Wolfe, Dominique E. Young, Bin Yuan, Qiang Zhang, Joost A. de Gouw, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11201–11224, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11201-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11201-2021, 2021
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Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is an important aspect of poor air quality for urban regions around the world, where a large fraction of the population lives. However, there is still large uncertainty in predicting SOA in urban regions. Here, we used data from 11 urban campaigns and show that the variability in SOA production in these regions is predictable and is explained by key emissions. These results are used to estimate the premature mortality associated with SOA in urban regions.
Beata Bukosa, Jenny Fisher, Nicholas Deutscher, and Dylan Jones
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-173, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-173, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Human activities led to rising levels of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO)) in the atmosphere, threatening our future. We use models and measurements to predict and understand the climatological impact of these gases. Here, we describe a new simulation in the GEOS-Chem model that uses a more accurate method to simulate CO2, CH4 and CO, through their chemical dependence. Relative to the original simulations our results agree better with measurements.
Hossein Dadashazar, David Painemal, Majid Alipanah, Michael Brunke, Seethala Chellappan, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan Crosbie, Simon Kirschler, Hongyu Liu, Richard H. Moore, Claire Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Michael Shook, Kenneth Sinclair, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Hailong Wang, Edward Winstead, Xubin Zeng, Luke Ziemba, Paquita Zuidema, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10499–10526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10499-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10499-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the seasonal cycle of cloud drop number concentration (Nd) over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) using multiple datasets. Reasons for the puzzling discrepancy between the seasonal cycles of Nd and aerosol concentration were identified. Results indicate that Nd is highest in winter (when aerosol proxy values are often lowest) due to conditions both linked to cold-air outbreaks and that promote greater droplet activation.
Jun Meng, Randall V. Martin, Paul Ginoux, Melanie Hammer, Melissa P. Sulprizio, David A. Ridley, and Aaron van Donkelaar
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4249–4260, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4249-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4249-2021, 2021
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Dust emissions in models, for example, GEOS-Chem, have a strong nonlinear dependence on meteorology, which means dust emission strengths calculated from different resolution meteorological fields are different. Offline high-resolution dust emissions with an optimized global dust strength, presented in this work, can be implemented into GEOS-Chem as offline emission inventory so that it could promote model development by harmonizing dust emissions across simulations of different resolutions.
Xu Feng, Haipeng Lin, Tzung-May Fu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Jiawei Zhuang, Daniel J. Jacob, Heng Tian, Yaping Ma, Lijuan Zhang, Xiaolin Wang, Qi Chen, and Zhiwei Han
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 3741–3768, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3741-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3741-2021, 2021
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WRF-GC is an online coupling of the WRF meteorological model and GEOS-Chem chemical transport model for regional atmospheric chemistry and air quality modeling. In WRF-GC v2.0, we implemented the aerosol–radiation interactions and aerosol–cloud interactions, as well as the capability to nest multiple domains for high-resolution simulations based on the modular framework of WRF-GC v1.0. This allows the GEOS-Chem users to investigate the meteorology–atmospheric chemistry interactions.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Peng-Wang Zhai, Vanderlei Martins, Sharon Burton, Brian Cairns, Richard Ferrare, Joel Gales, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Brent McBride, Anin Puthukkudy, P. Jeremy Werdell, and Xiaoguang Xu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4083–4110, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4083-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4083-2021, 2021
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Multi-angle polarimetric measurements can retrieve accurate aerosol properties over complex atmosphere and ocean systems; however, most retrieval algorithms require high computational costs. We propose a deep neural network (NN) forward model to represent the radiative transfer simulation of coupled atmosphere and ocean systems and then conduct simultaneous aerosol and ocean color retrievals on AirHARP measurements. The computational acceleration is 103 times with CPU or 104 times with GPU.
Carly Staebell, Kang Sun, Jenna Samra, Jonathan Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Xiong Liu, Eamon Conway, Kelly Chance, Scott Milligan, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3737–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, 2021
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Given the high global warming potential of CH4, the identification and subsequent reduction of anthropogenic CH4 emissions presents a significant opportunity for climate change mitigation. Satellites are an integral piece of this puzzle, providing data to quantify emissions at a variety of spatial scales. This work presents the spectral calibration of MethaneAIR, the airborne instrument used as a test bed for the forthcoming MethaneSAT satellite.
Nikita M. Fedkin, Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Pascal Hedelt, Diego G. Loyola, Russell R. Dickerson, and Robert Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3673–3691, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3673-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3673-2021, 2021
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This study presents a new volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) layer height retrieval algorithm for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We generated a large spectral dataset with a radiative transfer model and used it to train neural networks to predict SO2 height from OMI radiance data. The algorithm is fast and takes less than 10 min for a single orbit. Retrievals were tested on four eruption cases, and results had reasonable agreement (within 2 km) with other retrievals and previous studies.
David R. Lyon, Benjamin Hmiel, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Katherine A. Roberts, Zachary R. Barkley, Kenneth J. Davis, Natasha L. Miles, Vanessa C. Monteiro, Scott J. Richardson, Stephen Conley, Mackenzie L. Smith, Daniel J. Jacob, Lu Shen, Daniel J. Varon, Aijun Deng, Xander Rudelis, Nikhil Sharma, Kyle T. Story, Adam R. Brandt, Mary Kang, Eric A. Kort, Anthony J. Marchese, and Steven P. Hamburg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6605–6626, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6605-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6605-2021, 2021
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The Permian Basin (USA) is the world’s largest oil field. We use tower- and aircraft-based approaches to measure how methane emissions in the Permian Basin changed throughout 2020. In early 2020, 3.3 % of the region’s gas was emitted; then in spring 2020, the loss rate temporarily dropped to 1.9 % as oil price crashed. We find this short-term reduction to be a result of reduced well development, less gas flaring, and fewer abnormal events despite minimal reductions in oil and gas production.
Daniel J. Varon, Dylan Jervis, Jason McKeever, Ian Spence, David Gains, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2771–2785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2771-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2771-2021, 2021
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Satellites can detect methane emissions by measuring sunlight reflected from the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Here we show that the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 twin satellites can be used to monitor anomalously large methane point sources around the world, with global coverage every 2–5 days and 20 m spatial resolution. We demonstrate this previously unreported capability through high-frequency Sentinel-2 monitoring of two strong methane point sources in Algeria and Turkmenistan.
Juseon Bak, Xiong Liu, Robert Spurr, Kai Yang, Caroline R. Nowlan, Christopher Chan Miller, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2659–2672, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2659-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2659-2021, 2021
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We apply a principal component analysis (PCA)-based approach combined with lookup tables (LUTs) of corrections to accelerate the VLIDORT radiative transfer (RT) model used in the retrieval of ozone profiles from backscattered ultraviolet (UV) measurements by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI).
Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Yuzhong Zhang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Tia R. Scarpelli, Hannah Nesser, Robert M. Yantosca, Jianxiong Sheng, Arlyn Andrews, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, A. Anthony Bloom, and Shuang Ma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4637–4657, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4637-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4637-2021, 2021
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We use an analytical solution to the Bayesian inverse problem to quantitatively compare and combine the information from satellite and in situ observations, and to estimate global methane budget and their trends over the 2010–2017 period. We find that satellite and in situ observations are to a large extent complementary in the inversion for estimating global methane budget, and reveal consistent corrections of regional anthropogenic and wetland methane emissions relative to the prior inventory.
Joannes D. Maasakkers, Daniel J. Jacob, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Tia R. Scarpelli, Hannah Nesser, Jianxiong Sheng, Yuzhong Zhang, Xiao Lu, A. Anthony Bloom, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, and Robert J. Parker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4339–4356, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4339-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4339-2021, 2021
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We use 2010–2015 GOSAT satellite observations of atmospheric methane over North America in a high-resolution inversion to estimate methane emissions. We find general consistency with the gridded EPA inventory but higher oil and gas production emissions, with oil production emissions twice as large as in the latest EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory. We find lower wetland emissions than predicted by WetCHARTs and a small increasing trend in the eastern US, apparently related to unconventional oil/gas.
Yuzhong Zhang, Daniel J. Jacob, Xiao Lu, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Jinfeng Chang, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John Worden, Robert J. Parker, and Hartmut Boesch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 3643–3666, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3643-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3643-2021, 2021
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We use 2010–2018 satellite observations of atmospheric methane to interpret the factors controlling atmospheric methane and its accelerating increase during the period. The 2010–2018 increase in global methane emissions is driven by tropical and boreal wetlands and tropical livestock (South Asia, Africa, Brazil), with an insignificant positive trend in emissions from the fossil fuel sector. The peak methane growth rates in 2014–2015 are also contributed by low OH and high fire emissions.
Bo Zhang, Hongyu Liu, James H. Crawford, Gao Chen, T. Duncan Fairlie, Scott Chambers, Chang-Hee Kang, Alastair G. Williams, Kai Zhang, David B. Considine, Melissa P. Sulprizio, and Robert M. Yantosca
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1861–1887, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1861-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1861-2021, 2021
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We simulate atmospheric 222Rn using the GEOS-Chem model to improve understanding of 222Rn emissions and characterize convective transport in the model. We demonstrate the potential of a customized global 222Rn emission scenario to improve simulated surface 222Rn concentrations and seasonality. We assess convective transport using observed 222Rn vertical profiles. Results have important implications for using chemical transport models to interpret the transport of trace gases and aerosols.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
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Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
Susan S. Kulawik, John R. Worden, Vivienne H. Payne, Dejian Fu, Steven C. Wofsy, Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Bruce C. Daube Jr., Alan Lipton, Igor Polonsky, Yuguang He, Karen E. Cady-Pereira, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Daniel J. Jacob, and Yi Yin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 335–354, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-335-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-335-2021, 2021
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This paper shows comparisons of a new single-footprint methane product from the AIRS satellite to aircraft-based observations. We show that this AIRS methane product provides useful information to study seasonal and global methane trends of this important greenhouse gas.
Yang Li, Loretta J. Mickley, and Jed O. Kaplan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 57–68, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-57-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-57-2021, 2021
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Climate models predict a shift toward warmer, drier environments in southwestern North America. Under future climate, the two main drivers of dust trends play opposing roles: (1) CO2 fertilization enhances vegetation and, in turn, decreases dust, and (2) increasing land use enhances dust emissions from northern Mexico. In the worst-case scenario, elevated dust concentrations spread widely over the domain by 2100 in spring, suggesting a large climate penalty on air quality and human health.
Reem A. Hannun, Andrew K. Swanson, Steven A. Bailey, Thomas F. Hanisco, T. Paul Bui, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, and Thomas B. Ryerson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6877–6887, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6877-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6877-2020, 2020
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We have developed a cavity-enhanced absorption instrument to measure ozone in the atmosphere. The detection technique enables highly sensitive measurements in fast averaging times. The compact, robust instrument is suitable for operation in varied field environments, including aboard research aircraft. We have successfully flown the instrument and demonstrated its performance capabilities with measurements of ozone deposition rates over the coastal Pacific Ocean.
Junfeng Wang, Jianhuai Ye, Dantong Liu, Yangzhou Wu, Jian Zhao, Weiqi Xu, Conghui Xie, Fuzhen Shen, Jie Zhang, Paul E. Ohno, Yiming Qin, Xiuyong Zhao, Scot T. Martin, Alex K. Y. Lee, Pingqing Fu, Daniel J. Jacob, Qi Zhang, Yele Sun, Mindong Chen, and Xinlei Ge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14091–14102, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14091-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14091-2020, 2020
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We compared the organics in total submicron matter and those coated on BC cores during summertime in Beijing and found large differences between them. Traffic-related OA was associated significantly with BC, while cooking-related OA did not coat BC. In addition, a factor likely originated from primary biomass burning OA was only identified in BC-containing particles. Such a unique BBOA requires further field and laboratory studies to verify its presence and elucidate its properties and impacts.
Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Joanna Joiner, Robert J. D. Spurr, and Alexander Vasilkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6175–6191, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6175-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6175-2020, 2020
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is an important pollutant that causes haze and acid rain. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) has been providing global observation of SO2 from space for over 15 years. In this paper, we introduce a new OMI SO2 dataset for global pollution monitoring. The dataset better accounts for the influences of different factors such as location and sun and satellite angles, leading to improved data quality. The new OMI SO2 dataset is publicly available through NASA's data center.
Laura M. Judd, Jassim A. Al-Saadi, James J. Szykman, Lukas C. Valin, Scott J. Janz, Matthew G. Kowalewski, Henk J. Eskes, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Alexander Cede, Moritz Mueller, Manuel Gebetsberger, Robert Swap, R. Bradley Pierce, Caroline R. Nowlan, Gonzalo González Abad, Amin Nehrir, and David Williams
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6113–6140, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6113-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6113-2020, 2020
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This paper evaluates Sentinel-5P TROPOMI v1.2 NO2 tropospheric columns over New York City using data from airborne mapping spectrometers and a network of ground-based spectrometers (Pandora) collected in 2018. These evaluations consider impacts due to cloud parameters, a priori profile assumptions, and spatial and temporal variability. Overall, TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 columns appear to have a low bias in this region.
Petter Weibring, Dirk Richter, James G. Walega, Alan Fried, Joshua DiGangi, Hannah Halliday, Yonghoon Choi, Bianca Baier, Colm Sweeney, Ben Miller, Kenneth J. Davis, Zachary Barkley, and Michael D. Obland
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6095–6112, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6095-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6095-2020, 2020
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The present study describes an autonomously operated instrument for high-precision (20–40 parts per trillion in 1 s) measurements of ethane during actual airborne operations on a small aircraft platform (NASA's King Air B200). This paper discusses the dynamic nature of airborne performance due to various aircraft-induced perturbations, methods devised to identify such events, and solutions we have enacted to circumvent these perturbations.
Juseon Bak, Xiong Liu, Manfred Birk, Georg Wagner, Iouli E. Gordon, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5845–5854, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5845-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5845-2020, 2020
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This paper evaluates different sets of high-resolution ozone absorption cross-section data for use in atmospheric ozone profile measurements in the Hartley and Huggins bands with a particular focus on BDM 1995 (Daumont et al. 1992; Brion et al., 1993; Malicet et al., 1995) currently used in our retrievals and a new laboratory dataset by Birk and Wagner (BW) (2018).
Erik Lutsch, Kimberly Strong, Dylan B. A. Jones, Thomas Blumenstock, Stephanie Conway, Jenny A. Fisher, James W. Hannigan, Frank Hase, Yasuko Kasai, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria Makarova, Isamu Morino, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Anatoly V. Poberovskii, Ralf Sussmann, and Thorsten Warneke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12813–12851, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12813-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12813-2020, 2020
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This paper describes the use of a network of 10 Arctic and midlatitude ground-based FTIR measurement sites to detect enhancements of the wildfire tracers carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ethane from 2003 to 2018. A tagged CO GEOS-Chem simulation is used for source attribution and to evaluate the relative contribution of CO sources to the FTIR measurements. The use of FTIR measurements allowed for the emission ratios of hydrogen cyanide and ethane to be quantified.
Lei Zhu, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Eric C. Apel, Joshua P. DiGangi, Alan Fried, Thomas F. Hanisco, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Lu Hu, Jennifer Kaiser, Frank N. Keutsch, Wade Permar, Jason M. St. Clair, and Glenn M. Wolfe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12329–12345, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12329-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12329-2020, 2020
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We develop a validation platform for satellite HCHO retrievals using in situ observations from 12 aircraft campaigns. The platform offers an alternative way to quickly assess systematic biases in HCHO satellite products over large domains and long periods, facilitating optimization of retrieval settings and the minimization of retrieval biases. Application to the NASA operational HCHO product indicates that relative biases range from −44.5 % to +112.1 % depending on locations and seasons.
Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Jonathan M. Moch, Xuan Wang, and Shixian Zhai
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12223–12245, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12223-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12223-2020, 2020
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Cloud water pH affects atmospheric chemistry, and acid rain damages ecosystems. We use model simulations along with observations to present a global view of cloud water and precipitation pH. Sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and ammonia control the pH in the northern midlatitudes, but carboxylic acids and dust cations are important in the tropics and subtropics. The acid inputs to many nitrogen-saturated ecosystems are high enough to cause acidification, with ammonium as the main acidifying species.
Yohei Shinozuka, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Sharon P. Burton, Richard Ferrare, Sarah J. Doherty, Hamish Gordon, Karla Longo, Marc Mallet, Yan Feng, Qiaoqiao Wang, Yafang Cheng, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Steven G. Howell, Samuel LeBlanc, Connor Flynn, Michal Segal-Rosenhaimer, Kristina Pistone, James R. Podolske, Eric J. Stith, Joseph Ryan Bennett, Gregory R. Carmichael, Arlindo da Silva, Ravi Govindaraju, Ruby Leung, Yang Zhang, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11491–11526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11491-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11491-2020, 2020
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In the southeast Atlantic, well-defined smoke plumes from Africa advect over marine boundary layer cloud decks; both are most extensive around September, when most of the smoke resides in the free troposphere. A framework is put forth for evaluating the performance of a range of global and regional atmospheric composition models against observations made during the NASA ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) airborne mission in September 2016.
Ke Li, Daniel J. Jacob, Lu Shen, Xiao Lu, Isabelle De Smedt, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11423–11433, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11423-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11423-2020, 2020
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Surface summer ozone increased in China from 2013 to 2019 despite new governmental efforts targeting ozone pollution. We find that the ozone increase is mostly due to anthropogenic drivers, although meteorology also plays a role. Further analysis for the North China Plain shows that PM2.5 continued to decrease through 2019, while emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) stayed flat. This could explain the anthropogenic increase in ozone, as PM2.5 scavenges the radical precursors of ozone.
Yohei Shinozuka, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Sharon P. Burton, Steven G. Howell, Paquita Zuidema, Richard A. Ferrare, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Stephen Broccardo, Jens Redemann, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Marta Fenn, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, Michal Segal-Rosenheimer, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11275–11285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11275-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11275-2020, 2020
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To help satellite retrieval of aerosols and studies of their radiative effects, we demonstrate that daytime aerosol optical depth over low-level clouds is similar to that in neighboring clear skies at the same heights. Based on recent airborne lidar and sun photometer observations above the southeast Atlantic, the mean AOD difference at 532 nm is between 0 and -0.01, when comparing the cloudy and clear sides of cloud edges, with each up to 20 km wide.
Kirk Knobelspiesse, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, Christine Bradley, Carol Bruegge, Brian Cairns, Gao Chen, Jacek Chowdhary, Anthony Cook, Antonio Di Noia, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, David J. Diner, Richard Ferrare, Guangliang Fu, Meng Gao, Michael Garay, Johnathan Hair, David Harper, Gerard van Harten, Otto Hasekamp, Mark Helmlinger, Chris Hostetler, Olga Kalashnikova, Andrew Kupchock, Karla Longo De Freitas, Hal Maring, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brent McBride, Matthew McGill, Ken Norlin, Anin Puthukkudy, Brian Rheingans, Jeroen Rietjens, Felix C. Seidel, Arlindo da Silva, Martijn Smit, Snorre Stamnes, Qian Tan, Sebastian Val, Andrzej Wasilewski, Feng Xu, Xiaoguang Xu, and John Yorks
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2183–2208, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2183-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2183-2020, 2020
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The Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) field campaign is a resource for the next generation of spaceborne multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) and lidar missions. Conducted in the fall of 2017 from the Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, four MAP instruments and two lidars were flown on the high-altitude ER-2 aircraft over a variety of scene types and ground assets. Data are freely available to the public and useful for algorithm development and testing.
Xiao Lu, Lin Zhang, Tongwen Wu, Michael S. Long, Jun Wang, Daniel J. Jacob, Fang Zhang, Jie Zhang, Sebastian D. Eastham, Lu Hu, Lei Zhu, Xiong Liu, and Min Wei
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3817–3838, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3817-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3817-2020, 2020
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This study presents the development and evaluation of a new climate chemistry model, BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0, which couples the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model as an atmospheric chemistry component in the Beijing Climate Center atmospheric general circulation model. A 3-year (2012–2014) simulation of BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0 shows that the model captures well the spatiotemporal distributions of tropospheric ozone, other gaseous pollutants, and aerosols.
Eamon K. Conway, Iouli E. Gordon, Jonathan Tennyson, Oleg L. Polyansky, Sergei N. Yurchenko, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10015–10027, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10015-2020, 2020
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Water vapour has a complex spectrum and absorbs from the microwave to the near-UV where it dissociates. There is limited knowledge of the absorption features in the near-UV, and there is a large disagreement for the available models and experiments. We created a new ab initio model that is in good agreement with observation at 363 nm. At lower wavelengths, our calculations suggest that the latest experiments overestimate absorption. This has implications for trace gas retrievals in the near-UV.
Amir H. Souri, Caroline R. Nowlan, Gonzalo González Abad, Lei Zhu, Donald R. Blake, Alan Fried, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Armin Wisthaler, Jung-Hun Woo, Qiang Zhang, Christopher E. Chan Miller, Xiong Liu, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9837–9854, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9837-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9837-2020, 2020
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For the first time, we provide a joint nonlinear optimal estimate of NOx and NMVOC emissions during the KORUS-AQ campaign by simultaneously incorporating SAO's new product of HCHO columns from OMPS and OMI tropospheric NO2 columns into a regional model. Results demonstrate a promising improvement in the performance of the model in terms of HCHO and NO2 concentrations, which in turn enables us to quantify the impact of the emission changes on different pathways of ozone formation and loss.
Ka Lok Chan, Matthias Wiegner, Jos van Geffen, Isabelle De Smedt, Carlos Alberti, Zhibin Cheng, Sheng Ye, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4499–4520, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4499-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4499-2020, 2020
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The paper presents 2D MAX-DOAS observations of vertical distributions of aerosol extinction, NO2 and HCHO in Munich. The measured surface aerosol extinction coefficients and NO2 mixing ratios are compared to in situ monitoring data. The NO2 and HCHO data are subsequently used to validate satellite measurements. The MAX-DOAS measurements are also used to investigate the spatiotemporal characteristic of NO2 and HCHO in Munich.
Yang Li, Loretta J. Mickley, Pengfei Liu, and Jed O. Kaplan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8827–8838, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8827-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8827-2020, 2020
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Using a coupled vegetation–fire–climate modeling framework, we show a northward shift in forests and increased lightning fire activity in northern US states, including Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Our findings suggest a large climate penalty on ecosystem, air quality, visibility, and human health in a region valued for its national forests and parks. The fine-scale smoke PM predictions provided in this study should prove useful to human health and environmental assessments.
Haipeng Lin, Xu Feng, Tzung-May Fu, Heng Tian, Yaping Ma, Lijuan Zhang, Daniel J. Jacob, Robert M. Yantosca, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Jiawei Zhuang, Qiang Zhang, Xiao Lu, Lin Zhang, Lu Shen, Jianping Guo, Sebastian D. Eastham, and Christoph A. Keller
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3241–3265, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3241-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3241-2020, 2020
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Online coupling of meteorology and chemistry models often presents maintenance issues with hard-wired coding. We present WRF-GC, an one-way online coupling of the WRF meteorological model and GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model for regional atmospheric chemistry and air quality modeling. Our coupling structure allows future versions of either parent model to be immediately integrated into WRF-GC. The WRF-GC model was able to well reproduce regional PM2.5 with greater computational efficiency.
Steven Compernolle, Tijl Verhoelst, Gaia Pinardi, José Granville, Daan Hubert, Arno Keppens, Sander Niemeijer, Bruno Rino, Alkis Bais, Steffen Beirle, Folkert Boersma, John P. Burrows, Isabelle De Smedt, Henk Eskes, Florence Goutail, François Hendrick, Alba Lorente, Andrea Pazmino, Ankie Piters, Enno Peters, Jean-Pierre Pommereau, Julia Remmers, Andreas Richter, Jos van Geffen, Michel Van Roozendael, Thomas Wagner, and Jean-Christopher Lambert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8017–8045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8017-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8017-2020, 2020
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Tropospheric and stratospheric NO2 columns from the OMI QA4ECV NO2 satellite product are validated by comparison with ground-based measurements at 11 sites. The OMI stratospheric column has a small negative bias, and the OMI tropospheric column has a stronger negative bias relative to the ground-based data. Discrepancies are attributed to comparison errors (e.g. difference in horizontal smoothing) and measurement errors (e.g. clouds, aerosols, vertical smoothing and a priori profile assumptions).
Corinne Vigouroux, Bavo Langerock, Carlos Augusto Bauer Aquino, Thomas Blumenstock, Zhibin Cheng, Martine De Mazière, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Grutter, James W. Hannigan, Nicholas Jones, Rigel Kivi, Diego Loyola, Erik Lutsch, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria Makarova, Jean-Marc Metzger, Isamu Morino, Isao Murata, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Gaia Pinardi, Amelie Röhling, Dan Smale, Wolfgang Stremme, Kim Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Michel van Roozendael, Pucai Wang, and Holger Winkler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3751–3767, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3751-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3751-2020, 2020
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We validate the TROPOMI HCHO product with ground-based FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared) measurements from 25 stations. We find that TROPOMI overestimates HCHO under clean conditions, while it underestimates it at high HCHO levels. Both TROPOMI precision and accuracy reach the pre-launch requirements, and its precision can even be 2 times better. The observed TROPOMI seasonal variability is in agreement with the FTIR data. The TROPOMI random uncertainty and data filtering should be refined.
David Painemal, Fu-Lung Chang, Richard Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Zhujun Li, William L. Smith Jr., Patrick Minnis, Yan Feng, and Marian Clayton
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 7167–7177, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7167-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-7167-2020, 2020
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Aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs) are the most uncertain aspect of anthropogenic forcing. Although satellites provide the observational dataset for the global ACI quantification, retrievals are limited to vertically integrated quantities (e.g., aerosol optical depth – AOD), which are typically used as an aerosol proxy. This study demonstrates that matching vertically resolved aerosol from CALIOP at the cloud-layer height with satellite cloud retrievals reduces uncertainties in ACI estimates.
Pablo E. Saide, Meng Gao, Zifeng Lu, Daniel L. Goldberg, David G. Streets, Jung-Hun Woo, Andreas Beyersdorf, Chelsea A. Corr, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Bruce Anderson, Johnathan W. Hair, Amin R. Nehrir, Glenn S. Diskin, Jose L. Jimenez, Benjamin A. Nault, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jack Dibb, Eric Heim, Kara D. Lamb, Joshua P. Schwarz, Anne E. Perring, Jhoon Kim, Myungje Choi, Brent Holben, Gabriele Pfister, Alma Hodzic, Gregory R. Carmichael, Louisa Emmons, and James H. Crawford
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6455–6478, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6455-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6455-2020, 2020
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Air quality forecasts over the Korean Peninsula captured aerosol optical depth but largely overpredicted surface PM during a Chinese haze transport event. Model deficiency was related to the calculation of optical properties. In order to improve it, aerosol size representation needs to be refined in the calculations, and the representation of aerosol properties, such as size distribution, chemical composition, refractive index, hygroscopicity parameter, and density, needs to be improved.
Xinning Wang, Xingnan Ye, Jianmin Chen, Xiaofei Wang, Xin Yang, Tzung-May Fu, Lei Zhu, and Chongxuan Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6273–6290, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6273-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6273-2020, 2020
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Hygroscopicity plays several key roles in determining aerosol optical properties and aging processes in the atmosphere. However, it is quite difficult to study aerosol hygroscopicity at the single-particle level. In this study, we built a comprehensive database linking hygroscopicities and mass spectra of individual particles. Based on the measured hygroscopicity–composition relations, we developed a statistical method to estimate ambient particle hygroscopicity just from their mass spectra.
Lu Shen, Daniel J. Jacob, Mauricio Santillana, Xuan Wang, and Wei Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 2475–2486, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2475-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2475-2020, 2020
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Chemical mechanisms in air quality models tend to get more complicated with time, reflecting both increasing knowledge and the need for greater scope. This objectively improves the models but increases the computational burden. In this work, we present an approach that can reduce the computational cost of chemical integration by 30–40 % while maintaining an accuracy better than 1 %. It retains the complexity of the full mechanism where it is needed and preserves full diagnostic information.
Vitali Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nicolas Theys, Diego G. Loyola, Pascal Hedelt, Nickolay A. Krotkov, and Can Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 5591–5607, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5591-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5591-2020, 2020
Alexander B. Thames, William H. Brune, David O. Miller, Hannah M. Allen, Eric C. Apel, Donald R. Blake, T. Paul Bui, Roisin Commane, John D. Crounse, Bruce C. Daube, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, James W. Elkins, Samuel R. Hall, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem A. Hannun, Eric Hintsa, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Michelle J. Kim, Kathryn McKain, Fred L. Moore, Julie M. Nicely, Jeffrey Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Jason M. St. Clair, Colm Sweeney, Alex Teng, Chelsea R. Thompson, Kirk Ullmann, Paul O. Wennberg, and Glenn M. Wolfe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4013–4029, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4013-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4013-2020, 2020
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Oceans and the atmosphere exchange volatile gases that react with the hydroxyl radical (OH). During a NASA airborne study, measurements of the total frequency of OH reactions, called the OH reactivity, were made in the marine boundary layer of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The measured OH reactivity often exceeded the OH reactivity calculated from measured chemical species. This missing OH reactivity appears to be from unmeasured volatile organic compounds coming out of the ocean.
Becky Alexander, Tomás Sherwen, Christopher D. Holmes, Jenny A. Fisher, Qianjie Chen, Mat J. Evans, and Prasad Kasibhatla
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 3859–3877, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3859-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3859-2020, 2020
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Nitrogen oxides are important for the formation of tropospheric oxidants and are removed from the atmosphere mainly through the formation of nitrate. We compare observations of the oxygen isotopes of nitrate with a global model to test our understanding of the chemistry nitrate formation. We use the model to quantify nitrate formation pathways in the atmosphere and identify key uncertainties and their relevance for the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere.
Tia R. Scarpelli, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Jian-Xiong Sheng, Kelly Rose, Lucy Romeo, John R. Worden, and Greet Janssens-Maenhout
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 563–575, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-563-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-563-2020, 2020
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Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted through the exploitation of oil, gas, and coal resources, and many efforts to reduce emissions have targeted these sources. We have created a global inventory of oil, gas, and coal methane emissions based on country reporting to the United Nations. The inventory can be used along with satellite observations of methane to better understand the contribution of these sources to global emissions and to identify potential biases in emissions reporting.
Guangliang Fu, Otto Hasekamp, Jeroen Rietjens, Martijn Smit, Antonio Di Noia, Brian Cairns, Andrzej Wasilewski, David Diner, Felix Seidel, Feng Xu, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Meng Gao, Arlindo da Silva, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, John Hair, and Richard Ferrare
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 553–573, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-553-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-553-2020, 2020
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In this paper, we present aerosol retrieval results from the ACEPOL (Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar) campaign, which was a joint initiative between NASA and SRON (the Netherlands Institute for Space Research). We perform aerosol retrievals from different multi-angle polarimeters employed during the ACEPOL campaign and evaluate them against ground-based AERONET measurements and High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2) measurements.
Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ke Li, Rachel F. Silvern, Shixian Zhai, Mengyao Liu, Jintai Lin, and Qiang Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1483–1495, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1483-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1483-2020, 2020
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We analyze 15 years of satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and use an atmospheric chemistry model to understand the seasonal changes and trends in nitrogen oxides (NOx) over China. We show that the seasonal changes in NO2 occur due to changes in the NOx oxidation lifetime. We find that Chinese NOx emissions peaked in 2011 and had decreased by about 25 % by 2018. But the decrease in NO2 in winter was larger, likely because of a simultaneous decrease in the NOx oxidation lifetime.
Julie M. Nicely, Bryan N. Duncan, Thomas F. Hanisco, Glenn M. Wolfe, Ross J. Salawitch, Makoto Deushi, Amund S. Haslerud, Patrick Jöckel, Béatrice Josse, Douglas E. Kinnison, Andrew Klekociuk, Michael E. Manyin, Virginie Marécal, Olaf Morgenstern, Lee T. Murray, Gunnar Myhre, Luke D. Oman, Giovanni Pitari, Andrea Pozzer, Ilaria Quaglia, Laura E. Revell, Eugene Rozanov, Andrea Stenke, Kane Stone, Susan Strahan, Simone Tilmes, Holger Tost, Daniel M. Westervelt, and Guang Zeng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1341–1361, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1341-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1341-2020, 2020
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Differences in methane lifetime among global models are large and poorly understood. We use a neural network method and simulations from the Chemistry Climate Model Initiative to quantify the factors influencing methane lifetime spread among models and variations over time. UV photolysis, tropospheric ozone, and nitrogen oxides drive large model differences, while the same factors plus specific humidity contribute to a decreasing trend in methane lifetime between 1980 and 2015.
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Steven Platnick, Kerry Meyer, Rich Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, Steven Howell, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, and Sarah Doherty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6505–6528, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019, 201