Articles | Volume 21, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6481-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6481-2021
Research article
 | 
30 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 30 Apr 2021

Spatial and temporal variability in the hydroxyl (OH) radical: understanding the role of large-scale climate features and their influence on OH through its dynamical and photochemical drivers

Daniel C. Anderson, Bryan N. Duncan, Arlene M. Fiore, Colleen B. Baublitz, Melanie B. Follette-Cook, Julie M. Nicely, and Glenn M. Wolfe

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Cited articles

Allen, D., Pickering, K., Duncan, B., and Damon, M.: Impact of lightning NO emissions on North American photochemistry as determined using the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) model, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D22301, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010jd014062, 2010. 
Barnston, A. G. and Livezey, R. E.: Classification, Seasonality and Persistence of Low-Frequency Atmospheric Circulation Patterns, Mon. Weather Rev., 115, 1083–1126, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1987)115<1083:CSAPOL>2.0.CO;2, 1987. 
Borlace, S., Santoso, A., Cai, W., and Collins, M.: Extreme swings of the South Pacific Convergence Zone and the different types of El Niño events, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 4695–4703, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014gl060551, 2014. 
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Short summary
We demonstrate that large-scale climate features are the primary driver of year-to-year variability in simulated values of the hydroxyl radical, the primary atmospheric oxidant, over 1980–2018. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is the dominant mode of hydroxyl variability, resulting in large-scale global decreases in OH during El Niño events. Other climate modes, such as the Australian monsoon and the North Atlantic Oscillation, have impacts of similar magnitude but on on more localized scales.
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