Articles | Volume 23, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023
Research article
 | 
24 Jan 2023
Research article |  | 24 Jan 2023

Nitrogen oxides in the free troposphere: implications for tropospheric oxidants and the interpretation of satellite NO2 measurements

Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Lok N. Lamsal, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, K. Folkert Boersma, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Chelsea Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Ilana B. Pollack, Benjamin A. Nault, Ronald C. Cohen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Simone T. Andersen, Lucy J. Carpenter, Tomás Sherwen, and Mat J. Evans

Related authors

Vertical profiles of global tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) obtained by cloud slicing the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)
Rebekah P. Horner, Eloise A. Marais, Nana Wei, Robert G. Ryan, and Viral Shah
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13047–13064, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13047-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13047-2024, 2024
Short summary
Interpreting Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) geostationary satellite observations of the diurnal variation in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over East Asia
Laura Hyesung Yang, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Yujin J. Oak, Haipeng Lin, Jhoon Kim, Shixian Zhai, Nadia K. Colombi, Drew C. Pendergrass, Ellie Beaudry, Viral Shah, Xu Feng, Robert M. Yantosca, Heesung Chong, Junsung Park, Hanlim Lee, Won-Jin Lee, Soontae Kim, Eunhye Kim, Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7027–7039, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7027-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7027-2024, 2024
Short summary
Background nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over the United States and its implications for satellite observations and trends: effects of nitrate photolysis, aircraft, and open fires
Ruijun Dang, Daniel J. Jacob, Viral Shah, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Loretta J. Mickley, Tianjia Liu, Yi Wang, and Jun Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6271–6284, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6271-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6271-2023, 2023
Short summary
Why is ozone in South Korea and the Seoul metropolitan area so high and increasing?
Nadia K. Colombi, Daniel J. Jacob, Laura Hyesung Yang, Shixian Zhai, Viral Shah, Stuart K. Grange, Robert M. Yantosca, Soontae Kim, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4031–4044, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, 2023
Short summary
Tropospheric NO2 vertical profiles over South Korea and their relation to oxidant chemistry: implications for geostationary satellite retrievals and the observation of NO2 diurnal variation from space
Laura Hyesung Yang, Daniel J. Jacob, Nadia K. Colombi, Shixian Zhai, Kelvin H. Bates, Viral Shah, Ellie Beaudry, Robert M. Yantosca, Haipeng Lin, Jared F. Brewer, Heesung Chong, Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, Lok N. Lamsal, Ja-Ho Koo, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2465–2481, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2465-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2465-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
Natural surface emissions dominate anthropogenic emissions contributions to total gaseous mercury at Canadian rural sites
Irene Cheng, Amanda Cole, Leiming Zhang, and Alexandra Steffen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8591–8611, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8591-2025, 2025
Short summary
Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
Wanmin Gong, Stephen R. Beagley, Kenjiro Toyota, Henrik Skov, Jesper Heile Christensen, Alex Lupu, Diane Pendlebury, Junhua Zhang, Ulas Im, Yugo Kanaya, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Roberto Sommariva, Peter Effertz, John W. Halfacre, Nis Jepsen, Rigel Kivi, Theodore K. Koenig, Katrin Müller, Claus Nordstrøm, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Paul B. Shepson, William R. Simpson, Sverre Solberg, Ralf M. Staebler, David W. Tarasick, Roeland Van Malderen, and Mika Vestenius
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8355–8405, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8355-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8355-2025, 2025
Short summary
Influence of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emission changes on tropospheric ozone variability, trends and radiative effect
Suvarna Fadnavis, Yasin Elshorbany, Jerald Ziemke, Brice Barret, Alexandru Rap, P. R. Satheesh Chandran, Richard J. Pope, Vijay Sagar, Domenico Taraborrelli, Eric Le Flochmoen, Juan Cuesta, Catherine Wespes, Folkert Boersma, Isolde Glissenaar, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Hervé Petetin, and Isidora Anglou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8229–8254, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8229-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8229-2025, 2025
Short summary
Tropospheric ozone trends and attributions over East and Southeast Asia in 1995–2019: an integrated assessment using statistical methods, machine learning models, and multiple chemical transport models
Xiao Lu, Yiming Liu, Jiayin Su, Xiang Weng, Tabish Ansari, Yuqiang Zhang, Guowen He, Yuqi Zhu, Haolin Wang, Ganquan Zeng, Jingyu Li, Cheng He, Shuai Li, Teerachai Amnuaylojaroen, Tim Butler, Qi Fan, Shaojia Fan, Grant L. Forster, Meng Gao, Jianlin Hu, Yugo Kanaya, Mohd Talib Latif, Keding Lu, Philippe Nédélec, Peer Nowack, Bastien Sauvage, Xiaobin Xu, Lin Zhang, Ke Li, Ja-Ho Koo, and Tatsuya Nagashima
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7991–8028, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7991-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7991-2025, 2025
Short summary
Characterization of reactive oxidized nitrogen in the global upper troposphere using recent and historic commercial and research aircraft campaigns and GEOS-Chem
Nana Wei, Eloise A. Marais, Gongda Lu, Robert G. Ryan, and Bastien Sauvage
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7925–7940, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7925-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7925-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Air Pollutant Emissions Inventory: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/pollutants/air-emissions-inventory-overview.html, last access: 1 July 2021. 
Alexander, B., Sherwen, T., Holmes, C. D., Fisher, J. A., Chen, Q., Evans, M. J., and Kasibhatla, P.: Global inorganic nitrate production mechanisms: comparison of a global model with nitrate isotope observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 3859–3877, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3859-2020, 2020. 
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. 
Allen, H. M., Crounse, J. D., Kim, M. J., Teng, A. P., and Wennberg, P. O.: Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom): L2 In Situ Data from Caltech Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIT-CIMS), ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA [data set], https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1713, 2019. 
Download
Short summary
NOx in the free troposphere (above 2 km) affects global tropospheric chemistry and the retrieval and interpretation of satellite NO2 measurements. We evaluate free tropospheric NOx in global atmospheric chemistry models and find that recycling NOx from its reservoirs over the oceans is faster than that simulated in the models, resulting in increases in simulated tropospheric ozone and OH. Over the U.S., free tropospheric NO2 contributes the majority of the tropospheric NO2 column in summer.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint