Articles | Volume 20, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2057-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2057-2020
Research article
 | 
25 Feb 2020
Research article |  | 25 Feb 2020

Unexpected long-range transport of glyoxal and formaldehyde observed from the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite during the 2018 Canadian wildfires

Leonardo M. A. Alvarado, Andreas Richter, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Andreas Hilboll, Anna B. Kalisz Hedegaard, Oliver Schneising, and John P. Burrows

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Cited articles

Abbot, D. S., Palmer, P. I., Martin, R. V., Chance, K. V., Jacob, D. J., and Guenther, A.: Seasonal and interannual variability of North American isoprene emissions as determined by formaldehyde column measurements from space, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1886, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017336, 2003. 
Alvarado, L. M. A.: Investigating the role of glyoxal using satellite and MAX-DOAS measurements, PhD, University of Bremen, Bremen, available at: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00105347-16 (last access: 28 August 2019), 2016. 
Alvarado, L. M. A., Richter, A., Vrekoussis, M., Wittrock, F., Hilboll, A., Schreier, S. F., and Burrows, J. P.: An improved glyoxal retrieval from OMI measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4133–4150, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4133-2014, 2014. 
Alvarado, L. M. A., Richter, A., Vrekoussis, M., Wittrock, F., Hilboll, A., Schreier, S. F., and Burrows, J. P.: Investigating the Link Between Glyoxal and Biogenic Activities, in: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science, edited by: Lohmann, G., Meggers, H., Unnithan, V., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Notholt, J., and Bracher, A., pp. 59–65, Springer International Publishing, Cham, Germany, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13865-7_7, 2015. 
Atkinson, R.: Atmospheric chemistry of VOCs and NOx, Atmos. Environ., 34, 2063–2101, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(99)00460-4, 2000. 
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Short summary
We present CHOCHO and HCHO columns retrieved from measurements by TROPOMI. Elevated amounts of CHOCHO and HCHO are observed during the fire season in BC, Canada, where a large number of fires occurred in 2018. CHOCHO and HCHO plumes from individual fires are observed in air masses travelling over distances of up to 1500 km. Comparison with FLEXPART simulations with different lifetimes shows that effective lifetimes of 20 h and more are needed to explain the observations.
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