Exploring the sensitivity of atmospheric nitrate concentrations to nitric acid uptake rate using the Met Office's Unified Model

Jones, Anthony C.; Hill, Adrian; Remy, Samuel; Abraham, N. Luke; Dalvi, Mohit; Hardacre, Catherine; Hewitt, Alan J.; Johnson, Ben; Mulcahy, Jane P.; Turnock, Steven T.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15901-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15901-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15901-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 20

Research article

|

26 Oct 2021

Research article |

| 26 Oct 2021

Exploring the sensitivity of atmospheric nitrate concentrations to nitric acid uptake rate using the Met Office's Unified Model

Anthony C. Jones, Adrian Hill, Samuel Remy, N. Luke Abraham, Mohit Dalvi, Catherine Hardacre, Alan J. Hewitt, Ben Johnson, Jane P. Mulcahy, and Steven T. Turnock

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https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15901-2021-supplement

Data sets

Exploring the sensitivity of atmospheric nitrate concentrations to nitric acid uptake rate using the Met Office’s Unified Model: nitrate and nitric acid simulation data A. C. Jones, A. Hill, S. Remy, N. L. Abraham, M. Dalvi, C. Hardacre, A. J. Hewitt, B. Johnson, J. P. Mulcahy, and S. Turnock https://doi.org/10.5285/0613b74ecc574fa7b6ac8a22838c5f81

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Short summary

Ammonium nitrate is hard to model because it forms and evaporates rapidly. One approach is to relate its equilibrium concentration to temperature, humidity, and the amount of nitric acid and ammonia gases. Using this approach, we limit the rate at which equilibrium is reached using various condensation rates in a climate model. We show that ammonium nitrate concentrations are highly sensitive to the condensation rate. Our results will help improve the representation of nitrate in climate models.