Inferring drivers of tropical isoprene: competing  effects of emissions and chemistry

Yoon, James Young Suk; Wells, Kelley C.; Millet, Dylan B.; Frankenberg, Christian; Sanghavi, Suniti; Swann, Abigail L. S.; Thornton, Joel A.; Turner, Alexander J.

doi:10.5194/acp-26-4509-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4509-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4509-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 6

Research article

|

02 Apr 2026

Research article |

| 02 Apr 2026

Inferring drivers of tropical isoprene: competing effects of emissions and chemistry

James Young Suk Yoon, Kelley C. Wells, Dylan B. Millet, Christian Frankenberg, Suniti Sanghavi, Abigail L. S. Swann, Joel A. Thornton, and Alexander J. Turner

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4509-2026-supplement

Data sets

Data from: Impacts of interannual isoprene variations on methane lifetimes and trends James Yoon et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14020788

Data from "Inferring drivers of tropical isoprene: competing effects of emissions and chemistry" James Yoon https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17556135

Model code and software

vSmartMOM with Isoprene Absorption (v1.0.1) James Yoon et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19340865

MERRA-2 tavgM_2d_flx_Nx: 2d, Monthly mean, Time-Averaged, Single-Level, Assimilation, Surface Flux Diagnostics V5.12.4 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) https://doi.org/10.5067/0JRLVL8YV2Y4

Download

Article (5914 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Isoprene is a molecule emitted by trees that is oxidized in the atmosphere within hours. Much of the isoprene globally is emitted in the remote tropics, where we have few direct observations of isoprene. Here, we use new satellite retrievals of isoprene to infer drivers of tropical isoprene variability. Across three regions, isoprene column variability is controlled by different factors, namely changes in isoprene emissions or changes in natural nitrogen oxide sources, like soils and fires.