Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations
Biogenic NO<sub>x</sub> emissions from soils are a large natural source with substantial uncertainties in global bottom-up estimates (ranging from 4 to 15 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>). We reduce this range in emission estimates, and present a top-down soil NO<sub>x</s...
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doaj-ce91abcd548045e18fe545baafa4d15d2020-11-25T02:04:22ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242014-09-011418103631038110.5194/acp-14-10363-2014Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observationsG. C. M. Vinken0K. F. Boersma1J. D. Maasakkers2M. Adon3R. V. Martin4Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the NetherlandsDepartment of Meteorology and Air Quality, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the NetherlandsDepartment of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the NetherlandsLaboratoire d'Aérologie, UMR CNRS/UPS 5560, Toulouse, FranceDepartment of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CanadaBiogenic NO<sub>x</sub> emissions from soils are a large natural source with substantial uncertainties in global bottom-up estimates (ranging from 4 to 15 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>). We reduce this range in emission estimates, and present a top-down soil NO<sub>x</sub> emission inventory for 2005 based on retrieved tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We use a state-of-science soil NO<sub>x</sub> emission inventory (Hudman et al., 2012) as a priori in the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model to identify 11 regions where tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns are dominated by soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. Strong correlations between soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions and simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns indicate that spatial patterns in simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns in these regions indeed reflect the underlying soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. Subsequently, we use a mass-balance approach to constrain emissions for these 11 regions on all major continents using OMI observed and GEOS-Chem simulated tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns. We find that responses of simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns to changing NO<sub>x</sub> emissions are suppressed over low NO<sub>x</sub> regions, and account for these non-linearities in our inversion approach. In general, our approach suggests that emissions need to be increased in most regions. Our OMI top-down soil NO<sub>x</sub> inventory amounts to 10.0 Tg N for 2005 when only constraining the 11 regions, and 12.9 Tg N when extrapolating the constraints globally. Substantial regional differences exist (ranging from −40% to +90%), and globally our top-down inventory is 4–35% higher than the GEOS-Chem a priori (9.6 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>). We evaluate NO<sub>2</sub> concentrations simulated with our new OMI top-down inventory against surface NO<sub>2</sub> measurements from monitoring stations in Africa, the USA and Europe. Although this comparison is complicated by several factors, we find an encouraging improved agreement when using the OMI top-down inventory compared to using the a priori inventory. To our knowledge, this study provides, for the first time, specific constraints on soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions on all major continents using OMI NO<sub>2</sub> columns. Our results rule out the low end of reported soil NO<sub>x</sub> emission estimates, and suggest that global emissions are most likely around 12.9 ± 3.9 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>.http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/10363/2014/acp-14-10363-2014.pdf |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
G. C. M. Vinken K. F. Boersma J. D. Maasakkers M. Adon R. V. Martin |
spellingShingle |
G. C. M. Vinken K. F. Boersma J. D. Maasakkers M. Adon R. V. Martin Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
author_facet |
G. C. M. Vinken K. F. Boersma J. D. Maasakkers M. Adon R. V. Martin |
author_sort |
G. C. M. Vinken |
title |
Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations |
title_short |
Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations |
title_full |
Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations |
title_fullStr |
Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Worldwide biogenic soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from OMI NO<sub>2</sub> observations |
title_sort |
worldwide biogenic soil no<sub>x</sub> emissions inferred from omi no<sub>2</sub> observations |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
series |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
issn |
1680-7316 1680-7324 |
publishDate |
2014-09-01 |
description |
Biogenic NO<sub>x</sub> emissions from soils are a large natural source
with substantial uncertainties in global bottom-up estimates
(ranging from 4 to 15 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>). We reduce this range
in emission estimates, and present a top-down soil NO<sub>x</sub>
emission inventory for 2005 based on retrieved tropospheric
NO<sub>2</sub> columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We
use a state-of-science soil NO<sub>x</sub> emission inventory
(Hudman et al., 2012) as a priori in the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport
model to identify 11 regions where tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> columns
are dominated by soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. Strong correlations
between soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions and simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns
indicate that spatial patterns in simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns in
these regions indeed reflect the underlying soil NO<sub>x</sub>
emissions. Subsequently, we use a mass-balance approach to
constrain emissions for these 11 regions on all major continents
using OMI observed and GEOS-Chem simulated tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub>
columns. We find that responses of simulated NO<sub>2</sub> columns to
changing NO<sub>x</sub> emissions are suppressed over low NO<sub>x</sub>
regions, and account for these non-linearities in our inversion
approach. In general, our approach suggests that emissions need to
be increased in most regions. Our OMI top-down soil NO<sub>x</sub>
inventory amounts to 10.0 Tg N for 2005 when only
constraining the 11 regions, and 12.9 Tg N when
extrapolating the constraints globally. Substantial regional
differences exist (ranging from −40% to +90%), and
globally our top-down inventory is 4–35% higher than the
GEOS-Chem a priori (9.6 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>). We evaluate
NO<sub>2</sub> concentrations simulated with our new OMI top-down
inventory against surface NO<sub>2</sub> measurements from monitoring
stations in Africa, the USA and Europe. Although this comparison
is complicated by several factors, we find an encouraging improved
agreement when using the OMI top-down inventory compared to using
the a priori inventory. To our knowledge, this study provides, for
the first time, specific constraints on soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions
on all major continents using OMI NO<sub>2</sub> columns. Our results
rule out the low end of reported soil NO<sub>x</sub> emission
estimates, and suggest that global emissions are most likely around
12.9 ± 3.9 Tg N yr<sup>−1</sup>. |
url |
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/10363/2014/acp-14-10363-2014.pdf |
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