Investigating the global OH radical distribution using steady-state approximations and satellite data

Pimlott, Matilda A.; Pope, Richard J.; Kerridge, Brian J.; Latter, Barry G.; Knappett, Diane S.; Heard, Dwayne E.; Ventress, Lucy J.; Siddans, Richard; Feng, Wuhu; Chipperfield, Martyn P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10467-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10467-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10467-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 16

Research article

|

17 Aug 2022

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2022

Investigating the global OH radical distribution using steady-state approximations and satellite data

Matilda A. Pimlott, Richard J. Pope, Brian J. Kerridge, Barry G. Latter, Diane S. Knappett, Dwayne E. Heard, Lucy J. Ventress, Richard Siddans, Wuhu Feng, and Martyn P. Chipperfield

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10467-2022-supplement

Data sets

ATom: Merged At- mospheric Chemistry, Trace Gases, and Aerosols S. C. Wofsy, S. Afshar, H. M. Allen, E. Apel, E. C. Asher, B. Barletta, J. Bent, H. Bian, B. C. Biggs, D. R. Blake, N. Blake, I. Bourgeois, C. A. Brock, W. H. Brune, J. W. Budney, T. P. Bui, A. Butler, P. Campuzano-Jost, C. S. Chang, M. Chin, R. Commane, G. Correa, J. D. Crounse, P. D. Cullis, B. C. Daube, D. A. Day, J. M. Dean-Day, et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1581

Multivariate ENSO Index Version 2 (MEI.v2) NOAA https://psl.noaa.gov/enso/mei/

STFC RAL methane retrievals from IASI on board MetOp-A, version 2.0 R. Siddans, D. Knappertt, B. Kerridge, B. Latter, and A. Waterfall https://doi.org/10.5285/f717a8ea622f495397f4e76f777349d1

TOMCAT model data & IASI satellite data of O3, CO, H2O, CH4 and OH/derived OH for 2010 and 2017 Matilda A. Pimlott, Richard J. Pope, Brian J. Kerridge, Barry G. Latter, Diane S. Knappertt, Dwayne E. Heard, Lucy J. Ventress, Richard Siddans, Wuhu Feng, and Martyn P. Chipperfield https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6903521

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Short summary

We present a new method to derive global information of the hydroxyl radical (OH), an important atmospheric oxidant. OH controls the lifetime of trace gases important to air quality and climate. We use satellite observations of ozone, carbon monoxide, methane and water vapour in a simple expression to derive OH around 3–4 km altitude. The derived OH compares well to model and aircraft OH data. We then apply the method to 10 years of satellite data to study the inter-annual variability of OH.