Evaluating NOx emissions and their effect on O3 production in Texas using TROPOMI NO2 and HCHO

Goldberg, Daniel L.; Harkey, Monica; de Foy, Benjamin; Judd, Laura; Johnson, Jeremiah; Yarwood, Greg; Holloway, Tracey

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10875-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10875-2022

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10875-2022

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

Articles | Volume 22, issue 16

Research article

|

26 Aug 2022

Research article |

| 26 Aug 2022

Evaluating NO_x emissions and their effect on O₃ production in Texas using TROPOMI NO₂ and HCHO

Daniel L. Goldberg, Monica Harkey, Benjamin de Foy, Laura Judd, Jeremiah Johnson, Greg Yarwood, and Tracey Holloway

Data sets

Copernicus Sentinel-5P data products: Sentinel-5 Precursor Level 2 Nitrogen Dioxide Version 1.3 European Space Agency https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-s4ljg54

Copernicus Sentinel-5P data products: Sentinel-5 Precursor Level 2 Formaldehyde Version 1.1 European Space Agency https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-tjlxfd

Copernicus Open Access Hub European Space Agency https://s5phub.copernicus.eu/dhus/

NASA Earth Data Hub National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/ S5P_L2__NO2____1.html

NASA Earth Data Hub National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ datacollection/S5P_L2__NO2____HiR_1.html

NASA Earth Data Hub National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/S5P_L2__HCHO___1.html

NASA Earth Data Hub National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datacollection/S5P_L2__HCHO___HiR_1.html

S5P-PAL Data Portal European Space Agency https://data-portal.s5p-pal.com/products/no2.html

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1959 to present Copernicus Climate Data Store https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Short summary

TROPOMI measurements offer a valuable means to validate emissions inventories and ozone formation regimes, with important limitations. Lightning NO_x is important to account for in Texas and can contribute up to 24 % of the column NO₂ in rural areas and 8 % in urban areas. Modeled NO₂ in urban areas agrees with TROPOMI NO₂ to within 20 % in most circumstances, with a small underestimate in Dallas (−13 %) and Houston (−20 %). Near Texas power plants, the satellite appears to underrepresent NO₂.