Intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxide pollution plumes

[摘要] We describe thefirst satellite observation of intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxides emitted by power plants,verified by simulations with a particle tracer model. The analysis of such episodes shows that anthropogenicNO_x plumes may influence the atmospheric chemistry thousands ofkilometers away from its origin, as well as the ocean they traverse due tonitrogen fertilization. This kind of monitoring became possible by applyingan improved algorithm to extract the tropospheric fraction of NO₂ from thespectral data coming from the GOME instrument.

As an example we show the observation of NO₂ in the time period 4--14 May,1998, from the South African Plateau to Australia which was possible due tofavourable weather conditions during that time period which availed the satellite measurement. This episode was also simulated with the Lagrangianparticle dispersion model FLEXPART which uses NO_x emissions taken from aninventory for industrial emissions in South Africa and is driven with analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.Additionally lightning emissions were taken into account by utilizing Lightning ImagingSensor data. Lightning was found to contribute probably not more than 25% of theresulting concentrations. Both, the measured and simulated emission plume show matching patterns while traversing the Indian Ocean to Australia andshow great resemblance to the aerosol and CO₂ transport observed byPiketh et al. (2000).

[学科分类] 大气科学