TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rohrer, Franz
AU  - Lu, Keding
AU  - Hofzumahaus, Andreas
AU  - Bohn, Birger
AU  - Brauers, Theo
AU  - Chang, Chih-Chung
AU  - Fuchs, Hendrik
AU  - Häseler, Rolf
AU  - Holland, Frank
AU  - Hu, Min
AU  - Kita, Kazuyuki
AU  - Kondo, Yutaka
AU  - Li, Xin
AU  - Lou, Shengrong
AU  - Oebel, Andreas
AU  - Shao, Min
AU  - Zeng, Limin
AU  - Zhu, Tong
AU  - Zhang, Yuanhang
AU  - Wahner, Andreas
TI  - Maximum efficiency in the hydroxyl-radical-based self-cleansing of the troposphere
JO  - Nature geoscience
VL  - 7
SN  - 1752-0908
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
M1  - FZJ-2014-03813
SP  - 559–563
PY  - 2014
AB  - The removal of trace gases from the troposphere is, in most cases, initialized by reactions with hydroxyl radicals, and the products of these reactions are eventually deposited on the Earth's surface. The concentration of these hydroxyl radicals is therefore a measure of atmospheric self-cleansing. In theory, hydroxyl-radical concentrations can be enhanced by the recycling of some of the reaction products. The only known efficient recycling process involves nitrogen oxide and leads to production of ozone, yet observations in regions with high hydrocarbon and low nitrogen oxide concentrations show substantially elevated hydroxyl-radical concentrations, up to ten times higher than expected. If we normalize observed hydroxyl-radical concentrations to the maximum achievable in model calculations with variable nitrogen oxide concentrations, this photochemical coordinate system uncovers a common feature in almost all of these observations: even in the presence of inadequate amounts of nitrogen oxides, hydroxyl-radical concentrations are enhanced to the theoretical maximum obtainable at very much higher nitrogen oxide concentrations. This means that this important part of the self-cleansing capability of the atmosphere is working at maximum efficiency even in regions with a high burden of biogenic hydrocarbons and low nitrogen oxide concentration. Since these processes do not involve nitrogen oxides, tropospheric ozone production is greatly reduced compared with the expectation from current theory
Y2  - 13 Jul 2014
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000341635100010
DO  - DOI:10.1038/NGEO2199
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/154495
ER  -