Mapping hydroxyl variability throughout the global remote troposphere via synthesis of airborne and satellite formaldehyde observations

Wolfe, Glenn M.; Nicely, Julie M.; St. Clair, Jason M.; Hanisco, Thomas F.; Liao, Jin; Oman, Luke D.; Brune, William B.; Miller, David; Thames, Alexander; González Abad, Gonzalo; Ryerson, Thomas B.; Thompson, Chelsea R.; Peischl, Jeff; McKain, Kathryn; Sweeney, Colm; Wennberg, Paul O.; Kim, Michelle; Crounse, John D.; Hall, Samuel R.; Ullmann, Kirk; Diskin, Glenn; Bui, Paul; Chang, Cecilia; Dean-Day, Jonathan

doi:10.1073/pnas.1821661116

i

Mapping hydroxyl variability throughout the global remote troposphere via synthesis of airborne and satellite formaldehyde observations

2019
By Wolfe, Glenn M. ; Nicely, Julie M. ; St. Clair, Jason M. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States
Personal Author:

Wolfe, Glenn M. ; Nicely, Julie M. ; St. Clair, Jason M. ; Hanisco, Thomas F. ; Liao, Jin ; Oman, Luke D. ; Brune, William B. ; Miller, David ; Thames, Alexander ; González Abad, Gonzalo ; Ryerson, Thomas B. ; Thompson, Chelsea R. ; Peischl, Jeff ; McKain, Kathryn ; Sweeney, Colm ; Wennberg, Paul O. ; Kim, Michelle ; Crounse, John D. ; Hall, Samuel R. ; Ullmann, Kirk ; Diskin, Glenn ; Bui, Paul ; Chang, Cecilia ; Dean-Day, Jonathan
NOAA Program & Office:

CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) ; OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory) ; GML (Global Monitoring Laboratory) ; CSL (Chemical Sciences Laboratory)
Description:

The hydroxyl radical (OH) fuels tropospheric ozone production and governs the lifetime of methane and many other gases. Existing methods to quantify global OH are limited to annual and global-to-hemispheric averages. Finer resolution is essential for isolating model deficiencies and building process-level understanding. In situ observations from the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission demonstrate that remote tropospheric OH is tightly coupled to the production and loss of formaldehyde (HCHO), a major hydrocarbon oxidation product. Synthesis of this relationship with satellite-based HCHO retrievals and model-derived HCHO loss frequencies yields a map of total-column OH abundance throughout the remote troposphere (up to 70% of tropospheric mass) over the first two ATom missions (August 2016 and February 2017). This dataset offers unique insights on near-global oxidizing capacity. OH exhibits significant seasonality within individual hemispheres, but the domain mean concentration is nearly identical for both seasons (1.03 ± 0.25 × 106 cm−3), and the biseasonal average North/South Hemisphere ratio is 0.89 ± 0.06, consistent with a balance of OH sources and sinks across the remote troposphere. Regional phenomena are also highlighted, such as a 10-fold OH depression in the Tropical West Pacific and enhancements in the East Pacific and South Atlantic. This method is complementary to budget-based global OH constraints and can help elucidate the spatial and temporal variability of OH production and methane loss.
Keywords:

Formaldehyde Troposphere
Source:

PNAS June 4, 2019 116 (23) 11171-11180
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821661116
Document Type:

Journal Article
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Other
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Submitted
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urn:sha-512:9bbde4d25551abb9cb86d83c18ff108a31a73bbb158485cfc9b6a5ff939f8afdef9268169fbc29b11cd09e6a49ed16b18c64247a6283f4cbe69ea1d4429e7f9e
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https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/25160/noaa_25160_DS1.pdf
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