Sensitivity of tropospheric hydrogen peroxide to global chemical and climate change
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Thompson, Anne M., Melody A. Owens, and Richard W. Stewart. “Sensitivity of Tropospheric Hydrogen Peroxide to Global Chemical and Climate Change.” Geophysical Research Letters 16, no. 1 (1989): 53–56. https://doi.org/10.1029/GL016i001p00053.
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This 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.
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Abstract
The sensitivities of tropospheric HO₂ and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) levels to increases in CH₄, CO and NO emissions and to changes in stratospheric O₃ and tropospheric O₃ and H₂O have been evaluated with a one-dimensional photochemical model. Specific scenarios of CH₄-CO-NOx emissions and global climate changes are used to predict HO₂ and H₂O₂ changes between 1980 and 2030. Calculations are made for urban and nonurban continental conditions and for low latitudes. Generally, CO and CH₄ emissions will enhance H₂O₂ (as OH is converted to HO₂); NO emissions will suppress H₂O₂ except in very low NOx regions. A global warming (with increased H₂O vapor) or stratospheric O₃ depletion will add to H₂O₂. Hydrogen peroxide increases from 1980 to 2030 could be 100% or more in the urban boundary layer. Increases in CH₄, CO and O₃ that have occurred in the industrial era (since 1800) have probably produced temporal increases in background HO₂ and H₂O₂. It might be possible to use H₂O₂ in ice cores to track these changes. Where formation of sulfuric acid in cloudwater and precipitation is oxidant limited, H₂O₂ and HO₂ increases could be contributing to increases in acid precipitation.