Articles | Volume 24, issue 22
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13001-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13001-2024
Opinion
 | Highlight paper
 | 
26 Nov 2024
Opinion | Highlight paper |  | 26 Nov 2024

Opinion: Beyond global means – novel space-based approaches to indirectly constrain the concentrations of and trends and variations in the tropospheric hydroxyl radical (OH)

Bryan N. Duncan, Daniel C. Anderson, Arlene M. Fiore, Joanna Joiner, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Dylan B. Millet, Julie M. Nicely, Luke D. Oman, Jason M. St. Clair, Joshua D. Shutter, Amir H. Souri, Sarah A. Strode, Brad Weir, Glenn M. Wolfe, Helen M. Worden, and Qindan Zhu

Related authors

Enhancing long-term trend simulation of the global tropospheric hydroxyl (TOH) and its drivers from 2005 to 2019: a synergistic integration of model simulations and satellite observations
Amir H. Souri, Bryan N. Duncan, Sarah A. Strode, Daniel C. Anderson, Michael E. Manyin, Junhua Liu, Luke D. Oman, Zhen Zhang, and Brad Weir
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8677–8701, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8677-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8677-2024, 2024
Short summary
Feasibility of robust estimates of ozone production rates using satellite observations
Amir H. Souri, Gonzalo González Abad, Glenn M. Wolfe, Tijl Verhoelst, Corinne Vigouroux, Gaia Pinardi, Steven Compernolle, Bavo Langerock, Bryan N. Duncan, and Matthew S. Johnson
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1947,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1947, 2024
Short summary
Technical note: Constraining the hydroxyl (OH) radical in the tropics with satellite observations of its drivers – first steps toward assessing the feasibility of a global observation strategy
Daniel C. Anderson, Bryan N. Duncan, Julie M. Nicely, Junhua Liu, Sarah A. Strode, and Melanie B. Follette-Cook
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6319–6338, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6319-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6319-2023, 2023
Short summary
A machine learning methodology for the generation of a parameterization of the hydroxyl radical
Daniel C. Anderson, Melanie B. Follette-Cook, Sarah A. Strode, Julie M. Nicely, Junhua Liu, Peter D. Ivatt, and Bryan N. Duncan
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 6341–6358, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6341-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6341-2022, 2022
Short summary
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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6481–6508, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6481-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6481-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
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
Satellite-observed relationships between land cover, burned area, and atmospheric composition over the southern Amazon
Emma Sands, Richard J. Pope, Ruth M. Doherty, Fiona M. O'Connor, Chris Wilson, and Hugh Pumphrey
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11081–11102, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11081-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11081-2024, 2024
Short summary
Ammonia emission estimates using CrIS satellite observations over Europe
Jieying Ding, Ronald van der A, Henk Eskes, Enrico Dammers, Mark Shephard, Roy Wichink Kruit, Marc Guevara, and Leonor Tarrason
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10583–10599, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10583-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10583-2024, 2024
Short summary
Insights into the long-term (2005–2021) spatiotemporal evolution of summer ozone production sensitivity in the Northern Hemisphere derived with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)
Matthew S. Johnson, Sajeev Philip, Scott Meech, Rajesh Kumar, Meytar Sorek-Hamer, Yoichi P. Shiga, and Jia Jung
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10363–10384, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10363-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10363-2024, 2024
Short summary
Tropical tropospheric ozone distribution and trends from in situ and satellite data
Audrey Gaudel, Ilann Bourgeois, Meng Li, Kai-Lan Chang, Jerald Ziemke, Bastien Sauvage, Ryan M. Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, Debra E. Kollonige, Nadia Smith, Daan Hubert, Arno Keppens, Juan Cuesta, Klaus-Peter Heue, Pepijn Veefkind, Kenneth Aikin, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea R. Thompson, Thomas B. Ryerson, Gregory J. Frost, Brian C. McDonald, and Owen R. Cooper
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9975–10000, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9975-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9975-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Allen, D., Pickering, K. E., Bucsela, E., Van Geffen, J., Lapierre, J., Koshak, W., and Eskes, H.: Observations of lightning NOx production from Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument case studies over the United States, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, e2020JD034174, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD034174, 2021. 
Allen, N. C. C., Abad, G. G., Bernath, P. F., and Boone, C. D.: Satellite observations of the global distribution of hydrogen dioxide (H2O2) from ACE, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 115, January 2013, 66–77, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2012.09.008, 2013. 
Anderson, D. C., Duncan, B. N., Fiore, A. M., Baublitz, C. B., Follette-Cook, M. B., Nicely, J. M., and Wolfe, G. M.: 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, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6481–6508, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6481-2021, 2021. 
Anderson, D. C., Follette-Cook, M. B., Strode, S. A., Nicely, J. M., Liu, J., Ivatt, P. D., and Duncan, B. N.: A machine learning methodology for the generation of a parameterization of the hydroxyl radical, Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 6341–6358, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-6341-2022, 2022. 
Anderson, D. C., Duncan, B. N., Nicely, J. M., Liu, J., Strode, S. A., and Follette-Cook, M. B.: Technical note: Constraining the hydroxyl (OH) radical in the tropics with satellite observations of its drivers – first steps toward assessing the feasibility of a global observation strategy, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6319–6338, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6319-2023, 2023. 
Download
Executive editor
Tropospheric OH plays a central role in the chemical degradation and formation of air pollutants and climate-relevant trace gases. Traditional direct measurements of the extremely short-lived OH radicals provide localised information on the OH budget. Due to the high technical complexity and scarcity of such measurements, they are practically unsuitable for mapping global spatio-temporal OH distributions. Budget analyses of long-lived tracers (e.g. methyl chloroform) that react exclusively with OH provide estimates of the global mean OH and its temporal variability, but lack spatial resolution. This forward-looking opinion paper discusses new ideas and proposals to constrain global chemical sources and sinks of tropospheric OH using satellite and suborbital observations. The proposed approaches promise a better understanding of the global OH budget at higher spatial and temporal resolution than has been possible to date.
Short summary
Trace gases emitted to or formed within the atmosphere may be chemically or physically removed from the atmosphere. One trace gas, the hydroxyl radical (OH), is responsible for initiating the chemical removal of many trace gases, including some greenhouse gases. Despite its importance, scientists have not been able to adequately measure OH. In this opinion piece, we discuss promising new methods to indirectly constrain OH using satellite data of trace gases that control the abundance of OH.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint