Articles | Volume 26, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6825-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6825-2026
Research article
 | 
20 May 2026
Research article |  | 20 May 2026

Airborne remote sensing of nitrous acid in the troposphere: potential sources of excess HONO

Benjamin Weyland, Simon Rosanka, Domenico Taraborrelli, Birger Bohn, Andreas Zahn, Florian Obersteiner, Eric Förster, Mariano Mertens, Patrick Jöckel, Helmut Ziereis, Katharina Kaiser, Horst Fischer, John N. Crowley, Nijing Wang, Achim Edtbauer, Jonathan Williams, Maria Dolores Andrés Hernández, John P. Burrows, Flora Kluge, Meike K. Rotermund, Andre Butz, and Klaus Pfeilsticker

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Cited articles

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Short summary
The destruction by sunlight of nitrous acid (HONO) produces the so-called detergent of the atmosphere. HONO has been measured in concentrations which exceed predictions based on known chemistry for decades. Several reactions have been proposed which may explain this excess HONO. This study reports on airborne measurements of HONO; the observations exceed predictions and form a C-shaped profile in the troposphere. Together with a host of other measurements, various reactions are investigated.
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