Aircraft NO(x) had no Unique Fingerprint on Sonex; Lightning Dominated Fresh NO(x) Sources

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dc.contributor.authorThompson, Anne M.
dc.contributor.authorSparling, L.
dc.contributor.authorKondo, Y.
dc.contributor.authorAnderson, B.
dc.contributor.authorGregory, G.
dc.contributor.authorSachse, G.
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-26T16:34:08Z
dc.date.available2024-07-26T16:34:08Z
dc.date.issued1999-03-04
dc.description.abstractKey questions to which SONEX was directed were the following: Can aircraft corridors be detected? Is there a unique tracer for aircraft NO(x)? Can a "background" NO(x) (or NO(y) be defined? What fraction of NO(x) measured during SONEX was from aircraft? How representative was SONEX of the North Atlantic in 1997 and how typical of other years? We attempt to answer these questions through species-species correlations, probability distribution functions (PDFs), and meteorological history. There is not a unique aircraft tracer, largely due to the high variability of air mass origins and tracer ratios, which render "average" quantities meaningless. The greatest NO and NO(y) signals were associated with lightning and convective NO sources. Well-defined background CO, NO(y) and NO(y)/ozone ratio appear in subsets of two cross-track flights with subtropical origins and five flights with predominantly mid-latitude air. Forty percent of the observations on these 7 flights showed NO(y)/ozone to be above background, evidently due to unreacted NO(x). This NO(x) is a combination of aircraft, lightning and surface pollution injected by convection. The strongly subtropical signatures in SONEX observations, confirmed by pv (potential vorticity) values along flight tracks, argues for most of the unreacted NO(x) originating from lightning. Potential vorticity statistics along SONEX flight tracks in 1992-1998, and for the North Atlantic as a whole, show the SONEX meteorological environment to be representative of the North Atlantic flight corridor in the October-November period.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported under the NASA AEAP (Atmospheric Effects of Aviation) Subsonics Assessment Project and the NASA Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Programs. Discussions with K. E. Pickering, IL B. Chatfield, W. B. Grant, H. B. Singh and S. C. Liu were most helpful. T. L. Kucsera (SMAC at GSFC) provided programming expertise. The authors are grateful to AEAP Program Scientists S. R. Kawa and D. E. Anderson, SONF_ Project Manager J. A. Eilers, the DC-8 crew and H. Schlager from POLINAT for outstanding work in achieving SONEX objectives.
dc.description.urihttps://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19990040662
dc.format.extent12 pages
dc.genrejournal articles
dc.genrepreprints
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2hnos-szrz
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/34923
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC GESTAR II
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.rightsPublic Domain
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
dc.subjectEnvironment Pollution
dc.titleAircraft NO(x) had no Unique Fingerprint on Sonex; Lightning Dominated Fresh NO(x) Sources
dc.typeText
dcterms.creatorhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7829-0920

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