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

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dc.contributor.authorWolfe, Glenn M.
dc.contributor.authorNicely, Julie M.
dc.contributor.authorSt. Clair, Jason
dc.contributor.authorHanisco, Thomas F.
dc.contributor.authorLiao, Jin
dc.contributor.authorOman, Luke D.
dc.contributor.authorBrune, William B.
dc.contributor.authorMiller, David
dc.contributor.authorThames, Alexander
dc.contributor.authorAbad, Gonzalo González
dc.contributor.authorRyerson, Thomas B.
dc.contributor.authorThompson, Chelsea R.
dc.contributor.authorPeischl, Jeff
dc.contributor.authorMcKain, Kathryn
dc.contributor.authorSweeney, Colm
dc.contributor.authorWennberg, Paul O.
dc.contributor.authorKim, Michelle
dc.contributor.authorCrounse, John D.
dc.contributor.authorHall, Samuel R.
dc.contributor.authorUllmann, Kirk
dc.contributor.authorDiskin, Glenn
dc.contributor.authorBui, Paul
dc.contributor.authorChang, Cecilia
dc.contributor.authorDean-Day, Jonathan
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-21T16:55:03Z
dc.date.available2020-09-21T16:55:03Z
dc.date.issued2019-05-20
dc.description.abstractThe 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 lossen_US
dc.description.sponsorship. We thank all of the NASA pilots, crew, logistical personnel, and science leadership who facilitated the ATom mission. We thank Clare Flynn for assembling the merged dataset used to constrain 0-D box model simulations, and we also thank the many scientists contributing observations to this dataset. We thank Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Arlene Fiore, and Colleen Baublitz for helpful discussions and feedback. This work was supported by the NASA ATom Earth Venture Suborbital-2 Program. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) team acknowledges support from Atmospheric Composition Campaign Data Analysis and Modeling Grant NNX14AP48G, the NASA Upper Atmospheric Research Program, and the NASA Tropospheric Composition Program. J.M.N. was also supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the NASA GSFC, administered by the Universities Space Research Association under contract. OMI HCHO columns were developed with NASA support from Atmospheric Composition Modeling and Analysis Grant NNX17AH47G and the Aura Science Team. The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications 2 GMI simulation was supported by the NASA Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction Program and computational resources from the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. M.K. was funded by NSF Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 1524860. Finally, we thank three anonymous reviewers for their expert critique of the manuscript.en_US
dc.description.urihttps://www.pnas.org/content/116/23/11171en_US
dc.format.extent11 pagesen_US
dc.genreconference papers and proceedingsen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2zrii-0fqk
dc.identifier.citationGlenn M. Wolfe et al., Mapping hydroxyl variability throughout the global remote troposphere via synthesis of airborne and satellite formaldehyde observations, PNAS, 116 (23) 11171-11180; doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821661116en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821661116
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/19699
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherPNASen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Physics Department
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.rightsThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
dc.rightsPublic Domain Mark 1.0*
dc.rightsThis work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/*
dc.titleMapping hydroxyl variability throughout the global remote troposphere via synthesis of airborne and satellite formaldehyde observationsen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

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