effects of biogenic nitrate chemistry on the no …...received: 21 june 2012 – published in atmos....

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 11917–11932, 2012www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/11917/2012/doi:10.5194/acp-12-11917-2012© Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License.

AtmosphericChemistry

and Physics

Effects of biogenic nitrate chemistry on the NOx lifetime in remotecontinental regions

E. C. Browne1 and R. C. Cohen1,2

1Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA2Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Correspondence to:R. C. Cohen ([email protected])

Received: 21 June 2012 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 17 August 2012Revised: 4 December 2012 – Accepted: 7 December 2012 – Published: 17 December 2012

Abstract. We present an analysis of the NOx budget in con-ditions of low NOx (NOx = NO+ NO2) and high biogenicvolatile organic compound (BVOC) concentrations that arecharacteristic of most continental boundary layers. Using asteady-state model, we show that below 500 pptv of NOx,the NOx lifetime is extremely sensitive to organic nitrate(RONO2) formation rates. We find that even for RONO2 for-mation values that are an order of magnitude smaller thanis typical for continental conditions significant reductions inNOx lifetime, and consequently ozone production efficiency,are caused by nitrate forming reactions. Comparison of thesteady-state box model to a 3-D chemical transport model(CTM) confirms that the concepts illustrated by the simplermodel are a useful approximation of predictions provided bythe full CTM. This implies that the regional and global bud-gets of NOx, OH, and ozone will be sensitive to assumptionsregarding organic nitrate chemistry. Changes in the budgetsof these species affect the representation of processes impor-tant to air quality and climate. Consequently, CTMs must in-clude an accurate representation of organic nitrate chemistryin order to provide accurate assessments of past, present, andfuture air quality and climate. These findings suggest theneed for further experimental constraints on the formationand fate of biogenic RONO2.

1 Introduction

Nitrogen oxides enter the atmosphere as a result of bacte-rial processes in soils, high temperature chemistry in light-ning, and combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Currentestimates are that human creation of reactive nitrogen (both

oxidized and reduced nitrogen) increased by over an order ofmagnitude from∼ 15 Tg N yr−1 to ∼ 187 Tg N yr−1 between1860 and 2005 (Galloway et al., 2008). This increase is oneof the primary causes of air pollution, contributing directly tothe production of urban ozone and secondary organic aerosol(e.g., Carlton et al., 2010; Pye et al., 2010; Pinder et al.,2012; Rollins et al., 2012). The increase in NOx also resultsin an increase in the global background of OH (e.g., Wildet al., 2001). This in turn affects air pollution by increasingthe global background ozone concentration (e.g., Wild et al.,2001) and making it more difficult to reduce ozone in somecities (e.g., Zhang et al., 2008; Parrish et al., 2010). This in-crease in ozone also affects climate directly, and both NOxand ozone affect climate indirectly by their influence on theglobal lifetime of CH4 (e.g., Fuglestvedt et al., 1999; Wildet al., 2001; Derwent et al., 2008; Fry et al., 2012). Sev-eral studies have shown that the net global impact of NOxemissions on climate forcing is highly dependent on the lo-cation and seasonal cycle of the emissions (e.g., Fuglestvedtet al., 1999; Derwent et al., 2008; Fry et al., 2012). Conse-quently, there has been a significant research effort to un-derstand emissions of NOx from different sources such asfossil fuel combustion (e.g., van der A et al., 2008; Dall-mann and Harley, 2010; Jaegle et al., 2005), lightning (e.g.,van der A et al., 2008; Hudman et al., 2007; Schumann andHuntrieser, 2007), biomass burning (e.g., van der A et al.,2008; Alvarado et al., 2010; Jaegle et al., 2005; Mebust etal., 2011; Wiedinmyer et al., 2006), and soils (e.g., van derA et al., 2008; Bertram et al., 2005; Ghude et al., 2010; Hud-man et al., 2010; Jaegle et al., 2005). In contrast, the lifetimeof NOx, knowledge of which is necessary determine concen-trations from emissions, is not as well studied.

Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

11918 E. C. Browne and R. C. Cohen: Effects of biogenic nitrate chemistry on the NOx lifetime

In the vicinity of emissions, the lifetime of NOx (definedhere as concentration divided by loss rate) is a steeply non-linear function of the concentration of NOx (Valin et al.,2011 and references therein). In the remote continental atmo-sphere, emissions are more uniformly distributed and NOxconcentrations vary more slowly. Textbooks suggest that thechemical lifetime of NOx in these regions is largely set by itsreaction with OH to produce HNO3. However, several anal-yses have quantified the effect of isoprene nitrate formationon the NOx budget, showing that isoprene nitrate formationis a major sink of NOx and implying a strong effect on NOxlifetime (e.g., Trainer et al., 1991; Horowitz et al., 2007; Itoet al., 2007; Wu et al., 2007; Paulot et al., 2012).

In this paper we investigate how changes in the formationrate of organic nitrates (RONO2) affect the NOx budget inlow NOx, high BVOC environments. Using a steady-statemodel we find that the instantaneous NOx lifetime, and con-sequently ozone production efficiency, is extremely sensitiveto RONO2 production even when production rates are an or-der of magnitude smaller than typical for continental con-ditions. Calculations using the WRF-Chem model (WeatherResearch and Forecasting model with chemistry) (Grell et al.,2005) with detailed RONO2 chemistry added to the chemicalmechanism, are shown to be consistent with the conceptualmodel; this indicates that the steady-state model is sufficientto serve as a guide for thinking about how changes in RONO2chemistry affect NOx.

2 Background

Daytime chemistry in the lower troposphere encom-passes two chemical regimes: a low NOx (NOx = NO +

NO2) regime in which HOx (HOx = OH + HO2 + RO2) self-reactions (e.g., HO2 + RO2) dominate radical loss processes,and a high NOx regime in which radicals are lost through ni-tric acid production. Although low NOx chemistry has gen-erally been synonymous with methane and carbon monox-ide chemistry, recent field observations have shown that inthe presence of high biogenic volatile organic compound(BVOC) concentrations, low NOx chemistry is significantlymore complex than this textbook view. Most of these re-cent low NOx, high BVOC studies have focused on under-standing the production and loss processes of HOx radicals(Lelieveld et al., 2008; Stavrakou et al., 2010; Stone et al.,2011; Taraborrelli et al., 2012; Whalley et al., 2011; Mao etal., 2012). Here, we focus on understanding the nitrogen rad-ical budget under these conditions.

Chemical loss of NOx is generally considered to be domi-nated by nitric acid formation:

OH+ NO2 → HNO3 (R1)

Close to source regions, where NOx concentrations are high,NOx will also be lost through the formation of peroxy ni-trates:

RO2 + NO2 + M ↔ ROONO2 + M (R2)

It is well known that peroxy nitrates act as a NOx reservoir;they may be transported to rural and remote locations wherethey will dissociate, resulting in a net source of NOx down-wind from the emissions.

Chemical NOx loss also occurs via the formation of alkyland multifunctional organic nitrates of the form RONO2from the minor branch of the NO and peroxy radical reac-tion:

NO+ RO2 → RONO2 (α) (R3a)

NO+ RO2 → NO2 + RO (1− α) (R3b)

Measurements of total RONO2 by thermal dissociationlaser induced fluorescence (Day et al., 2002) have shownthat RONO2 account for a substantial fraction of ox-idized nitrogen (NOy = NO+ NO2+ NO3+ total peroxynitrates + total alkyl and multifunctional nitrates+HNO3+ 2*N2O5 + HONO+...) in urban (Rosen et al., 2004;Cleary et al., 2005; Perring et al., 2010; Farmer et al., 2011)and rural (Murphy et al., 2006; Farmer and Cohen, 2008; Dayet al., 2009; Perring et al., 2009a; Beaver et al., 2012) loca-tions as well as downwind of the continents (Perring et al.,2010).

Isoprene nitrates are thought to be a large fraction of theorganic nitrates. Global modeling studies investigating theimpact of isoprene-derived nitrates on NOx and O3 havefound large sensitivities in the net global and regional bud-gets of O3 and OH to assumptions about formation, lifetime,and oxidation products of isoprene-derived nitrates (e.g.,Horowitz et al., 1998, 2007; von Kuhlmann et al., 2004; Fioreet al., 2005; Ito et al., 2007, 2009; Wu et al., 2007; Paulot etal., 2012). Paulot et al. (2012) used a global CTM to calculatethe impact of isoprene-derived nitrates on the NOx budget inthe tropics and found that up to 70 % of the local net NOxsink is from the formation of isoprene-derived nitrates.

Recently, simultaneous field measurements of speciatedmultifunctional nitrates using chemical ionization mass-spectrometry (St. Clair et al., 2010) and measurements oftotal RONO2 by thermal dissociation laser induced fluores-cence provided the first opportunity for a comparison of thetotal RONO2 measurement in a complex chemical environ-ment. The sum of the individual compounds was∼ 65 % ofthe total RONO2 when only isoprene (first and second gen-eration) and 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol nitrates were included,and was almost closed when all nitrogen containing masseswere included. The measurements confirmed that biogenicRONO2 represent the vast majority of the total in a rural en-vironment (Beaver et al., 2012). Recent measurements fromthe NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Tro-posphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) campaign

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 11917–11932, 2012 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/11917/2012/

E. C. Browne and R. C. Cohen: Effects of biogenic nitrate chemistry on the NOx lifetime 11919

Table 1.Reactions and rate coefficients used in the steady-state modeling of daytime chemistry.

Reaction Rate

CH4 + OHO2

−→ CH3O2 + H2O 1.85× 10−12exp(−1690/T )a

CH3O2 + NO−→ NO2 + HO2 + HCHO 2.8× 10−12exp(300/T )b

CH3O2 + HO2 −→ products 4.1× 10−13exp(750/T )b

CH3O2 + CH3O2 −→ 0.66 HO2 + products 9.5× 10−14exp(390/T )b

NMVOC + OHO2

−→ RO2 See Table 2RO2 + NO−→ (1− α)HO2 + (1− α)NO2 + αRONO2 2.7× 10−12exp(360/T )c

RO2 + HO2 −→ products 2.06× 10−13exp(1300/T )d

RO2 + RO22O2−→ 1.2 CH3O2 + products 1.4× 10−12e

RO2 −→ HO2 + OH 4.12×108exp(−7700/T )f

RO2 + CH3O22O2−→ 0.6 CH3O2 + 0.6 HO2 + products 1.4× 10−12e

CO + HOM,O2−→ HO2 + CO2 k0 = 1.5×10−13 (T /300)0.6

k∞ = 2.1× 109(T /300)6.1b,∗

CO + OHM

−→ HOCOO2

−→ HO2 + CO2 k0 = 5.9× 10−33(T /300)−1.4

k∞ = 1.1× 10−12 (T /300)1.3b

P(HOx) −→ 0.8OH + 0.2HO2 See Table 2OH + O3 −→ HO2 + O2 1.7× 10−12exp(−940/T )a

OH + H2O2

−→ HO2 + H2O 7.7× 10−12exp(−2100/T )a H2 = 531 ppb∗∗

HCHO+ OH −→ HO2 + CO2 + H2O 5.4× 10−12exp(135/T )a

H2O2 + OH −→ HO2 + H2O 2.9× 10−12exp(−160/T )a

HO2 + OH −→ H2O + O2 4.8× 10−11exp(250/T )a

HO2 + O3 −→ OH + 2O2 1.0× 10−14exp(−490/T )b

HO2 + HO2M

−→ H2O2 + H2O (2.1× 10−33× M × exp(920/T ) +

3.0× 10−13 exp(460/T )) ×(1 + [H2O] × 1.4× 10−21 exp(2200/T ))b

HO2 + NO −→ OH + NO2 3.45× 10−12exp(270/T )a

NO + O3 −→ NO2 + O2 1.4× 10−12exp(−1310/T )a

NO2 + OHM

−→ HNO3 k0 = 1.49× 10−30(T /300)−1.8 k∞ = 2.58× 10−11g

NO2 + hνO2

−→ NO + O3 See Table 2

a IUPAC Atkinson et al. (2004, 2006),b JPL 2011 (Sander et al., 2011),c MCM v3.2 (Jenkin et al., 1997; Saunders et al., 2003),d MCM v3.2RO2+HO2 for five carbon RO2, e (Jenkin et al., 1997) RO2 reactions secondary RO2 with β-OH, f Crounse et al. (2011) using MCM v3.2RO2+HO2 reaction rate with a 5 carbon RO2 to represent isoprene peroxy+ HO2, g Henderson et al. (2012),∗ Calculated using the JPL 2011termolecular rate for chemical activation reactions,∗∗ Novelli et al. (1999).

(Jacob et al., 2010) show that in the low NOx, high BVOCenvironment of the Canadian boreal forest, RONO2 accountfor 18 % of NOy and often account for at least half of theinstantaneous NOx sink (Browne et al., 2012).

3 Steady-state calculations

Here, we restrict our analysis to NOx concentrations lessthan 500 pptv. Discussion on the effects of RONO2 chem-istry at higher NOx concentrations can be found in Farmeret al. (2011) and are reviewed by Perring et al. (2012). Theselow NOx, high BVOC environments, such as boreal and trop-ical forests, are generally characterized by large expansesof relatively homogeneous emissions. Consequently, evenwhile transport can be long-range, the lifetime of different

species can be short relative to changes in sources and sinks.The lifetime of NOx is the ratio of the NOx concentration tothe loss via formation of HNO3 and RONO2. Although thislifetime may be similar to, or longer than, the length of a sin-gle day or night, since the transport pathways are over uni-form environments, the air parcels still have sufficient timeto approach steady-state with the sources and sinks of NOx.This does not affect the assumption of steady-state since thecycling reactions within the NOx family are fast. Simulationswith a time-dependent box model also suggest that steady-state is applicable.

www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/11917/2012/ Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 11917–11932, 2012


Table 2. Parameters used in the daytime steady-state model. Thevalue of the parameters (except for NMVOC+ OH) are based onthe mean ARCTAS measurements from less than 2 km pressure alti-tude and excluding data with recent anthropogenic or biomass burn-ing influence.

Species Value

Temperature 285 KPhotolysis rate of NO2 6.2× 10−3 s−1

CH4 1865 ppbvCO 130 ppbvO3 40 ppbvHOx production rate 4.1× 106 molecules cm−3 s−1

HCHO 1.48 ppbvH2O2 2.04 ppbvH2O 1.18× 104 ppmNMVOC+OH 2 s−1

3.1 Daytime

Here, we use a simplified representation of daytime chem-istry (Table 1) whereP (HOx) represents primary HOx pro-duction from all sources including O(1D) + H2O, photoly-sis of species such as H2O2 and HCHO, and any others. Weassume that 80 % of HOx production results in OH and theremainder in HO2 (from HCHO photolysis). In addition toCO and CH4 chemistry, we include a lumped VOC that re-acts with OH to form a lumped peroxy radical (RO2 in Ta-ble 1). When this lumped RO2 species reacts with NO, it ei-ther propagates the radicals (R3b) or forms an organic ni-trate (R3a). The fraction of the time that an organic nitrate isformed R3a/(R3a+ R3b) is referred to as the branching ratio(α). For specific molecules,α increases with increasing car-bon number, lower temperature, and higher pressure (Arey etal., 2001).

For the other RO2 reactions, we assume that the RO2species behaves like a primary or secondary peroxy radi-cal. Following the MCM protocol, the RO2+ RO2 reactionthen results in 1.2 alkoxy radicals (Jenkin et al., 1997). Inthe model, the alkoxy radical either instantaneously isomer-izes or decomposes (i.e., we ignore the reaction with O2) toproduce a peroxy radical that is lumped with CH3O2 (i.e.,no formation of organic nitrates upon reaction with NO).The RO2+ CH3O2 reaction follows the same assumptionsresulting in 0.6 CH3O2 and 0.6 HO2. The RO2 species un-dergoes an isomerization reaction with products of OH andHO2. This reduced complexity is designed to mimic the lowNOx chemistry of isoprene (e.g., Peeters et al., 2009; Peetersand Muller, 2010; Crounse et al., 2011, 2012).

For illustrative purposes, we use the mean conditions sam-pled during ARCTAS at low altitude and removed from re-cent biomass burning influence (Table 2) as inputs to themodel. We run the model at specified NO concentrations un-til the radicals (RO2, CH3O2, HO2, OH, and NO2) are in

Table 3.Effectiveα value at various NOx concentrations. These arecalculated using Eq. (A2).

α αeff αeff αeff10 pptv NOx 100 pptv NOx 500 pptv NOx

0.1 % 0.06 % 0.08 % 0.09 %1 % 0.64 % 0.81 % 0.87 %5 % 3.22 % 4.03 % 4.37 %10 % 6.43 % 8.06 % 8.74 %

steady-state and then calculate the formation of RONO2 andnitric acid.

Values of α equal to 0 %, 0.1 %, 1 %, 5 %, and 10 %are used to illustrate a range of conditions that vary fromremote conditions removed from the continents (α = 0 %and α = 0.1 %) to areas influenced primarily by BVOCs(e.g., monoterpenes, isoprene) with high RONO2 formation(α = 5–10 %).

It should be noted that theα value in the steady-statemodel is different from what has been referred to in the lit-erature as the “effective branching ratio” (Rosen et al., 2004;Cleary et al., 2005; Perring et al., 2010; Farmer et al., 2011).The effective branching ratio refers to the average branch-ing ratio of the entire VOC mixture (including CO, CH4, etc)and is therefore smaller than the branching ratio of the RO2species. Observations suggest that the effective branching ra-tio for VOC mixtures for urban regions ranges from 4–7 %(Cleary et al., 2005; Farmer et al., 2011; Perring et al., 2010;Rosen et al., 2004). The effective branching ratio for the sit-uations calculated here ranges from 0.06–8.74 % and is de-pendent on NOx due to changes in the ratio of CH3O2 to RO2with NOx (Table 3). Full details regarding the calculation ofαeff and discussion of how it varies with NOx can be foundin Appendix A.

3.2 Nighttime

Nighttime chemical loss of NOx occurs via NO3 reactionswith alkenes that have organic nitrate products, heteroge-neous hydrolysis of N2O5, and reactions of NO3 with aldehy-des. The latter two loss processes both result in the formationof HNO3. We consider a nighttime VOC mix that consists ofthree VOCs: isoprene,α-pinene, and acetaldehyde.

Since there is no suitable ARCTAS data to constrain thenighttime concentrations of alkenes and aldehydes, we useoutput from the WRF-Chem model to guide our choice ofinput concentrations (Table 5). We choose a lower estimateof 400 pptv of alkenes (which we split evenly between iso-prene andα-pinene) and a mid-range concentration of 2 ppbvof acetaldehyde. In this choice of isoprene andα-pinene wedo not mean to imply that this is the exact speciation of theBVOCs. Rather we choose these two alkenes to act as ex-ample species since they have different reaction rates andorganic nitrate yields. Varying the split between these two



Table 4.Reactions and rate coefficients used in the steady-state modeling of nighttime chemistry.

Reaction Rate

NO2 + O3 −→ NO3 1.2× 10−13exp(−2450/T )a

NO3 + NO2M

−→ N2O5 k0 =2.0× 10−30(T /300)−4.4

k∞ =1.4× 10−12(T /300)−0.7a

N2O5M

−→ NO3 + NO2 Keq= 2.7× 10−27exp(11 000/T )b

α-pinene+NO3 −→ βα-pineneRONO2 + products 1.2× 10−12exp(490/T )c

Isoprene+ NO3 −→ βisopreneRONO2 + products 3.15× 10−12exp(−450/T )c

Acetaldehyde+ NO3 −→ HNO3 + products 1.4× 10−12exp(−1860/T )c

N2O5H2O,surface

−→ 2HNO3 See Table 5

a JPL 2011 (Sander et al., 2011)b JPL 2011 calculated fromkNO3+NO2

Keq. c IUPAC (Atkinson et al., 2006).

Table 5.Parameters used in the nighttime steady-state model.

Species Value

Temperature 285 KO3 40 ppbvα-pinene 200 pptvisoprene 200 pptvacetaldehyde 2 ppbvβisoprene 0.7βα-pinene 0.3N2O5 hydrolysis τ = 3 or 5 h

BVOCs has no significant impact on our conclusions. Wealso note that although isoprene is primarily emitted duringthe day, it is possible to have isoprene emitted near sunsetpersist into the night (e.g., Brown et al., 2009).

The reaction of NO3 with alkenes results in an NO3-alkeneadduct that either retains or releases the nitrate functionalityupon reaction with other radicals. We use the parameterβ

to represent the fraction that retains the nitrate functionality.Recent measurements of organic RONO2 yields for the reac-tion of biogenic VOC with NO3 suggest thatβ for isopreneis ∼ 65–70 % (Rollins et al., 2009; Perring et al., 2009b),∼ 40–45 % forβ-pinene (Fry et al., 2009), and∼ 30 % forlimonene (Fry et al., 2011). Due to experimental difficulties,most chamber studies of this type are carried out under condi-tions where the ratio of RO2 to HO2 is greatly enhanced rela-tive to the ambient atmosphere. Since theβ value depends onwhich radical the nitrooxy peroxy radical reacts with, theseorganic nitrate yields are not strictly applicable to ambientmeasurements. We use these chamber results as a guide andassign aβ value of 30 % forα-pinene, and 70 % for isoprene.

We run the model using two different lifetimes of N2O5 (3h and 5 h) with respect to heterogeneous hydrolysis. Assum-ing a reactive uptake coefficient of 0.01, these lifetimes cor-respond to aerosol surface areas of approximately 144 and87 µm2 cm−3 for the lifetimes of 3 h and 5 h, respectively.

Both these surface areas and the reactive uptake coefficientused here are likely upper limits for a remote environment.With this simplified representation of the chemistry of theseVOCs and the inorganic reactions of NOx and O3 shownin Table 4, we calculate the loss of NOx to HNO3 and toRONO2 by prescribing the NO2 concentration and assumingNO3 and N2O5 are in instantaneous steady-state.

4 NOx lifetime

4.1 Daytime

We compute the lifetime of NOx with respect to chemicalloss to RONO2 and nitric acid using Eq. (1):

τNOx =[NOx]

Loss(NOx)= (1)

[NOx]∑i

αikRO2i+NO[RO2i

][NO] + kOH+NO2[OH][NO2]

For NOx concentrations less than 500 pptv whenα = 0 %,HNO3 formation is the sole mechanism for NOx loss, andthe NOx lifetime is longest at low NOx and decreases as NOxincreases (Fig. 1). This decrease is roughly proportional to1/[OH] (not shown) which, at low NOx concentrations, in-creases as NOx concentrations increase due to an increase ofOH recycling from HO2+ NO.

As α increases, the NOx lifetime decreases, most signif-icantly at the lowest NOx concentrations. At 100 pptv NOx,for α values in the range expected in remote forested regions,RONO2 production results in a NOx lifetime of less than 8 h(α = 5 %) and less than 5 h (α = 10 %), compared to a NOxlifetime of greater than one day (∼ 27 h) for α = 0 %. Thelifetime of NOx peaks near NOx concentrations of∼ 20 pptv(α = 1 %) to∼ 210 pptv (α = 10 %) forα values of at least1 % (Fig. 1). This reflects the dependence of RONO2 pro-duction on RO2 concentrations. At low NOx concentrations,RO2 concentrations change rapidly as a function of NOx, re-sulting in the NOx lifetime curve behaving approximately



0 100 200 300 400 5000

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

NOx (pptv)

NO

x Lifetim

e (

hours

)

α = 0%

α = 0.1%

α = 1%

α = 5%

α = 10%

Fig. 1. Steady-state model results of NOx lifetime to chemical lossversus NOx concentration.

0 100 200 300 400 5000

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

NOx (pptv)

Fra

ctional N

Ox l

oss to R

ON

O2

α = 0.1%α = 1%α = 5%α = 10%

Fig. 2. Steady-state model results of fractional chemical NOx lossto RONO2 versus NOx concentration .

as roughly proportional to 1/[RO2]. As NOx increases, thechange in RO2 with NOx slows, and the OH term becomesmore important. The resulting maximum in NOx lifetime de-pends on the weighting of the RO2 term (theα value) andshifts to higher NOx concentrations asα increases (Fig. 1).

The relative effects of HNO3 versus RONO2 formation onNOx lifetime are shown in Fig. 2, where the fraction of NOxloss to RONO2 is shown versus NOx. The fraction of NOxloss to RONO2 is significant at NOx below 100 pptv-even ifα is as low as 1 %. That fraction decreases as NOx increases.

For theα = 5 % andα = 10 % cases that are expected tobe typical of BVOC emissions from forests, RONO2 pro-duction represents more than half of the NOx loss at NOxconcentrations below∼ 400 pptv and∼ 950 pptv, respec-tively. Consequently, in remote regions with high BVOCemissions where we expect NOx concentrations of∼ 20–

300 pptv, RONO2 formation accounts for over 50 % of theinstantaneous NOx loss. It is notable that even for theα =

1 %, which is similar to the measured value for ethane of1.2 % ± 0.2 % (Atkinson et al., 1982),∼ 31 % of NOx lossis due to RONO2 at 100 pptv NOx and∼ 15 % of NOx lossat 500 pptv NOx. We note that the total VOC reactivity of2 s−1 that we use in these calculations is much too high forethane to affect the RONO2 yield (∼ 370 ppbv of ethane arerequired to have a reactivity of 2 s−1). Since the importanceof RONO2 decreases with decreasing VOC reactivity, we ex-pect that RONO2 formation would be low in pure ethane,CO, CH4 chemistry. However, only∼ 740 pptv of isoprene(α ∼ 10 %) is needed to achieve a reactivity of 2 s−1 and74 pptv of isoprene with a reactivity of 0.2 s−1 would havethe effect ofα ∼ 1 %. Even a small addition of isoprene orother highly reactive BVOC will result in a reactivity andαin the range of these calculations.

The exact numbers presented in Figs. 1 and 2 are sensi-tive to the parameters chosen for HOx production, VOC re-activity, and peroxy radical reaction rates. We have tested theeffects of much slower or faster peroxy radical self reactionrates, the effect of increasing the peroxy radical isomeriza-tion rate by an order of magnitude, and the effects of varyingthe HOx production and non-methane VOC reactivity. Wefind that the basic structure of our results, that organic nitrateformation is an important NOx loss under low NOx condi-tions, is insensitive to wide variations in the assumed param-eters.

4.2 Nighttime

The nighttime formation of RONO2 from NO3 chemistryalso has important implications for the chemical loss of NOx,especially since the branching ratio for RONO2 formation ismuch higher for NO3 chemistry and N2O5 is present at verylow concentrations due to low concentrations of NO2. Wecalculate the NOx lifetime at night with respect to the forma-tion of RONO2 and HNO3 using Eq. (2) and Eq. (3) respec-tively.

τNOx→RONO2 = (2)[NO2] + [NO3] + 2 · [N2O5]

βα-pinenekNO3+α-pinene[α-pinene][NO3] +βisoprenekNO3+isoprene[Isoprene][NO3]

τNOx→HNO3 = (3)[NO2] + [NO3] + 2 · [N2O5]

2kN2O5hydrolysis[N2O5] + kNO3+aldehyde[Aldehyde][NO3]

For NOx concentrations less than 500 pptv, the NOx lifetimewith respect to RONO2 formation is just under 40 h and isessentially invariant with respect to assumptions regardingthe N2O5 lifetime to hydrolysis and acetaldehyde concentra-tions (Fig. 3a). The lifetime shows relatively little sensitivityto reasonable changes in alkene concentration since any in-crease in alkenes decreases the steady-state NO3 concentra-tion.



0 100 200 300 400 50036.6

36.8

37

37.2

37.4

NOx lifetime to RONO

2

NOx (pptv)

ho

urs

0 100 200 300 400 5000.9

0.95

1

NOx (pptv)

Fractional NOx loss to RONO

2

N2O

5 = 3 h [AA] = 2 ppbv

N2O

5 = 5 h [AA] = 2 ppbv

N2O

5 = 3 h [AA] = 6 ppbv

Fig. 3. Steady state model calculation of NOx lifetime at night to(A) RONO2 formation and(B) fractional NOx loss to RONO2 atnight in the steady-state model.

The NOx lifetime with respect to nighttime production ofHNO3 is much longer (at least several days – not shown)even for N2O5 hydrolysis lifetimes as short as 10 min. As aresult, the fractional loss of NOx to RONO2 dominates, al-ways accounting for at least∼ 95 % of the fractional NOxloss (Fig. 3b). Furthermore, increasing the HNO3 productionthrough the aldehyde+ NO3 reaction by increasing the ac-etaldehyde concentration by a factor of 3 (to 6 ppbv) resultsin minor differences. Even if we replace acetaldehyde withpinonaldehyde (which reacts an order of magnitude morequickly), the fraction of NOx loss to RONO2 is high: at100 pptv NOx it is ∼ 92 % for pinonaldehyde concentrationsof 2 ppbv and 80 % for 6 ppbv pinonaldehyde (for a N2O5lifetime of 180 min).

Since the lifetime is controlled by the production ofRONO2, the lifetime is highly sensitive to the assumed valueof β; asβ increases and the loss of NOx through NO3 reac-tions becomes more efficient, the NOx lifetime will be lim-ited by the NO2+ O3 rate. Under this condition, the NOx life-time is

τ =[NOx]

FkNO2+O3[NO2][O3](4)

whereF is a number between 1 (loss through NO3 domi-nates) and 2 (loss through N2O5 dominates). Under low NOxconditionsF will be close to 1 and the lifetime has a limitingvalue at high BVOC or highβ of ∼ 12 h.

4.3 Twenty-four hour average lifetime

The average NOx lifetime will be a combination of the night-time and daytime sinks. However, the NOx lifetime at night ismuch longer than the daytime value except atα = 0 % where

0 100 200 300 400 5000

50

100

150

200

NOx (pptv)

OP

E

α = 0%

α = 0.1%

α = 1%

α = 5%

α = 10%

Fig. 4. Steady-state model results for ozone production efficiency(OPE) versus NOx concentration.

the two are nearly equal. Under the range of NOx concentra-tions studied here, the nocturnal lifetime is dominated by or-ganic nitrate formation and is essentially invariant with NOxconcentration. Thus, the shape of the NOx lifetime curve willbe similar to the shape of the daytime lifetime curve (Fig. 1),however the curve will be shifted to longer lifetimes due tothe slower loss at night.

5 Ozone production efficiency

Since the production of RONO2 reduces the NOx lifetime,it will reduce the number of ozone molecules producedper NOx removed (the ozone production efficiency-OPE)(Fig. 4). OPE is calculated using Eq. (5):

OPE=P(O3)

L(NOx)= (5)

kHO2+NO[HO2][NO] + kCH3O2+NO[CH3O2][NO] + (1− α)kRO2+NO[RO2][NO]

kOH+NO2[NO2][OH] +αkRO2+NO[RO2][NO]

At 100 pptv NOx OPE decreases from∼ 110 forα = 0 % to∼ 19 for theα = 10 % case. The shape of the OPE versusNOx curve also changes withα; the slope of the OPE versusNOx line decreases in steepness asα increases. The shallowslope of OPE versus NOx for the higherα cases occurs be-cause both ozone production and NOx loss depend on RO2.For the lowα cases, NOx loss depends primarily on OH con-centration, which, as discussed earlier, decreases as NOx de-creases. Since the RO2 concentration increases as NOx de-creases, this results in a high OPE at low NOx.

NOx reservoirs, such as peroxy nitrates, transport NOxfrom high NOx, low OPE environments (urban areas) to ar-eas downwind at lower NOx and high OPE. Figure 4 suggeststhat if this downwind area is over the continents, that the OPEmay be significantly lower than the traditional textbook viewof low NOx chemistry would assume. This high sensitivity



of OPE to the RONO2 formation potential also suggests thatsmall errors in RONO2 representation may lead to larger er-rors in the calculated ozone burden.

As will be discussed further in Sect. 7, some fraction ofRONO2 return NOx to the atmosphere after oxidation andconsequently have a similar impact as other NOx reservoirssuch as the peroxy nitrates discussed above (with the impor-tant distinction that the NOx is returned to the atmosphereafter oxidation - not just after thermal decomposition). Theimpact of this has been discussed by Paulot et al. (2012) whoshow that increases in the NOx recycling from isoprene ni-trates in the tropics increases ozone downwind of the con-tinents. Since this is not a steady-state process, we are un-able to represent using our steady-state model and insteaduse the 3-D chemical transport model to investigate this ef-fect (Sect. 6). Under conditions where the return of NOx tothe atmosphere from RONO2 is important, Eq. (5) should berewritten as:

OPE=P(O3)

L(NOx)= (6)

kHO2+NO[HO2][NO] + kCH3O2+NO[CH3O2][NO] + (1− α)kRO2+NO[RO2][NO]

kOH+NO2[NO2][OH] +αkRO2+NO[RO2][NO] − δkRONO2 loss[RONO2]

HerekRONO2 loss represents the total effective first order lossrate of RONO2 andδ refers to the fraction of this loss that re-turns NOx to the atmosphere (rather than removing throughprocesses such as deposition). It is important to note that ac-counting for this process simply by decreasing theα valueis incorrect since the amount of NOx returned will dependstrongly on the history of the airmass and will not neces-sarily be representative of the local chemistry. For instance,one could imagine a forested region where there is a transi-tion region from isoprene to monoterpene emissions. In thissituation, transported isoprene nitrates may release NOx inthe monoterpene region. Due to the different properties ofmonoterpene nitrates and isoprene nitrates (e.g., vapor pres-sure, oxidation rates, deposition rates), simply decreasingthe monoterpene nitrate formation will result in an inaccu-rate representation of the chemistry that will induce errors incalculations of ozone and SOA. Alternatively, the speciationof RONO2 production may be constant, but the atmosphericconditions may change (e.g., the transition from day to night)that would result in the same species of nitrates having dif-ferent integrated effects on atmospheric chemistry.

The value of OPE in the atmosphere has often been es-timated using the correlation between NOz (NOz = NOy-NOx) and O3, however, this is a difficult comparison due tothe different lifetimes of O3 and NOz, as well as the variabil-ity in lifetimes of the different NOz components. These prob-lems are more significant in the boundary layer of remoteenvironments where there are large contributions of peroxynitrates and HNO3 to NOz. However, measurements from aforest in northern Michigan suggest an OPE of∼ 22 for NOxconcentrations around 300 pptv (Thornberry et al., 2001), an

40 60 80 100 120 140 1605

10

15

20

NO

x lifetim

e to n

et chem

ical lo

ss (

hours

)

NOx (pptv)

0.5% ≤ αeff

< 2%

3% ≤ αeff

< 4%

αeff

≥ 5%

Fig. 5.WRF-Chem predication of the NOx lifetime to net chemicalloss over Canada (north of 53◦ N) averaged over two weeks in July.The net chemical loss is defined as the sum of the net chemical lossto different classes of NOy including RONO2, RO2NO2, and HNO3(full details can be found in Appendix B). If the net chemical lossis less than zero for any particular class, the net loss is set to zero.The results are sorted by the effectiveαeff value as calculated usingEq. (A2).

OPE value that lies between ourα = 5 % andα = 10 % val-ues expected for a forested environment.

6 Boreal forest: comparison to a 3-D chemical transportmodel

We compare the steady state calculations described above tothe WRF-Chem 3-D chemical transport model simulationscarried out using a domain that includes a large fraction ofCanada where we expect low NOx concentrations coupledwith high BVOC emissions from the boreal forest to have astrong effect on NOx lifetime. Details regarding the WRF-Chem model simulations can be found in Appendix B.

The WRF-Chem model allows us to account for the effectsfrom NOx reservoirs with long lifetimes relative to changesin sources and sinks (i.e. ones for which transport plays animportant role in determining concentration) such as: forma-tion and decomposition of peroxy nitrates and the release ofNOx from oxidation and photolysis of RONO2. We define theNOx lifetime with respect to the net chemical loss of NOx.In this formulation the NOx lifetime depends both on localchemistry as well as the decomposition of transported NOxreservoirs. If the net chemical loss to any class of species(e.g., peroxy nitrates, RONO2, nitric acid) is less than zero,then that species has zero contribution to the chemical loss ofNOx at that NOx concentration. Figure 5 shows the NOx life-time to net chemical loss as a function of NOx, binned by theeffectiveα value calculated using Eq. (A2). In the calculation



40 60 80 100 120 140 1600

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

Fractional net NOx loss to RONO

2

NOx (pptv)

A

40 60 80 100 120 140 1600

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

Fractional net NOx loss to HNO

3

NOx (pptv)

B

40 60 80 100 120 140 1600

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

Fractional net NOx loss to RO

2NO

2

NOx (pptv)

C0.5% ≤ αeff

< 2%

3% ≤ αeff

< 4%

αeff

≥ 5%

Fig. 6.WRF-Chem results for(A) fractional net NOx loss to organicnitrates,(B) fractional net NOx loss to HNO3, and(C) fractional netNOx loss to peroxy nitrates. The net chemical loss is defined as thesum of the net chemical loss to different classes of NOy includingorganic nitrates, peroxy nitrates, and nitric acid (full details can befound in Appendix B). If the net chemical loss is less than zero forany particular class, the net loss is set to zero. The results are sortedby the effectiveαeff value as calculated using Eq. (A2).

of αeff we assume that the ozone production rate defined inEq. (A3) is equivalent to Eq. (7):

P(O3) = jNO2[NO2] − kNO+O3[NO][O3] (7)

We note that the WRF-Chem results we report use 24-h av-eraged data to calculateαeff. This allows us to sort the air-masses by their RONO2 production rates; however, the exactvalue ofαeff differs slightly from what would be calculatedusing only the daytime data.

Within the domain, we find examples of airmasses withαeff ranging from∼ 0.4–8 %. Both the full 3-D calculations(Fig. 5) and the box model (Fig. 1) show the same general de-pendence of the lifetime onα: a dependence that due to thedominance of RONO2 formation as a NOx sink, is roughlyproportional to 1/α. The most notable difference between thetwo is that the NOx lifetime from the 3-D calculations de-creases more steeply as NOx increases than it does for thesteady-state results. This is due to an increase in the loss dueto peroxy nitrate formation (Fig. 6c) as NOx increases, an ef-fect that is not represented in the steady-state model which

assumed peroxy nitrates were at steady-state and thus couldbe ignored.

The fractional net NOx loss to RONO2, peroxy nitrates,and HNO3 is shown in Fig. 6. The NOx concentrations pre-dicted by WRF-Chem cover the range of∼ 30–250 pptv. Al-though this range represents a small fraction of the globalvariation of NOx concentrations, it is a typical range for themajority of remote continental regions. However, the chem-istry in this regime is highly sensitive to the NOx concentra-tion and, as shown in both Fig. 2 for the steady state modeland in Fig. 6 for the WRF-Chem model, large changes in thefractional composition of the products of the NOx loss reac-tions are predicted. In both calculations the fraction of netNOx loss to RONO2 (Fig. 6a) approaches unity as NOx de-creases and as the effectiveα value increases. Interestingly,the WRF-Chem predictions for the fractional net NOx lossto HNO3 shows only a slight increase as a function of NOx(Fig. 6b) and the decrease in fractional NOx loss to RONO2is compensated by an increase in the net NOx loss to peroxynitrates when NOx is greater than∼ 50–80 pptv (Fig. 6c).We note that a plot of the fractional instantaneous gross losswhen only RONO2 and HNO3 are considered (which is a di-rect comparison to Fig. 2), does show the fractional contribu-tion of HNO3 increasing with increasing NOx (not shown).The fractional net NOx loss to peroxy nitrates exhibits littlevariation with respect toαeff, indicating that peroxy nitratesare acting to buffer NOx. A full investigation of this effect,however, would require a larger NOx range and attention tothe effects of temperature and transport. Many of these as-pects of peroxy nitrate chemistry have been discussed pre-viously (Sillman and Samson, 1995). We note that due tothe thermal instability of peroxy nitrates, the importance ofperoxy nitrates as a NOx reservoir will be highly dependenton temperature and we expect large differences between sea-sons and between boreal and tropical forests. In no regimedoes peroxy nitrate chemistry change the conclusion that thelifetime of NOx is controlled by RONO2 production rates atlow NOx concentrations.

7 Discussion

In the past few years it has become increasingly apparentthat our understanding of atmospheric chemistry in low NOx,high BVOC environments is limited. Most of the work inthis chemical regime (e.g., Lelieveld et al., 2008; Peetersand Muller, 2010; Stavrakou et al., 2010; Stone et al., 2011;Taraborrelli et al., 2012; Whalley et al., 2011), however, hasfocused on the HOx budget with little to no discussion onother controlling factors, including the nitrogen budget. Un-certainties in the HOx budget, particularly regarding the fateof RO2 and the production of OH, impact the NOx budgetvia the changes in the concentrations of RO2, HO2, and OHwhich, in turn, change the absolute values of RONO2 andHNO3 production. However, the work presented here shows



that in these low NOx, high BVOC environments the fate ofNOx also has important consequences on atmospheric chem-istry. In particular we show that the formation of RONO2 ac-counts for the majority of the instantaneous NOx sink, result-ing in decreased NOx lifetime and decreased OPE relative tochemistry dominated by CO and CH4. Thus, it is clear that al-though there are significant uncertainties associated with thischemical regime, it is necessary to consider both the HOxand NOx budgets.

One of the most important uncertainties regarding the im-pact of RONO2 chemistry on regional and global scales isthe extent to which these molecules serve as permanent ver-sus temporary NOx sinks; a value which, in general, is notwell known. For instance, if we assume that RONO2 pre-dominately serve as temporary NOx sinks that transport NOxto areas with higher OPE (e.g., areas with lower NOx or areasat the same NOx but lowerα), we expect an increase in theozone burden as a result of accounting for RONO2 chemistry.In contrast, if the RONO2 are lost primarily through deposi-tion, they may increase nitrogen availability in the biosphere.Since many areas are nitrogen limited, introduction of nitro-gen will also affect the carbon storage capacity of an ecosys-tem (e.g., Holland et al., 1997; Thornton et al., 2007, 2009;Bonan and Levis, 2010). A recent study observed the directfoliar uptake of RONO2 and subsequent incorporation of thenitrogen into amino acids (Lockwood et al., 2008), indicatingthat (at least some) RONO2 will affect plant growth.

In order to improve our understanding of the impact ofRONO2 on atmospheric chemistry, particularly on the globaland regional NOx and HOx budgets, laboratory studies onthe formation of RONO2 (particularly for biogenic speciesother than isoprene), oxidation, physical loss, and oxidationproducts are necessary. Of particular importance is improv-ing the constraints on the extent to which organic nitrates actas permanent versus temporary sink of NOx. This requiresmeasurement of: the oxidation rates and products, dry andwet deposition velocities, and secondary organic aerosol for-mation and processing for various biogenic organic nitrates.These laboratory measurements must be supplemented byfield measurements spanning NOx concentrations from nearzero to a few ppbv. In one such analysis, we use measure-ments from the ARCTAS campaign (Browne et al., 2012).However, a thorough understanding will require measure-ments in environments with different classes of BVOC emis-sions (e.g., pine forests which are dominated by monoter-penes (α ∼ 18 %) and oak forests which are dominated byisoprene (α ∼ 10 %)). These field measurements will provideconstraints on how the importance of RONO2 versus nitricacid changes as a function of NOx and will test the represen-tation of RONO2 chemistry in condensed chemical mecha-nisms.

It is interesting to consider how incorporation of im-proved RONO2 chemistry into condensed chemical mech-anisms may impact our understanding of both preindustrialand future climates. For instance, it is likely that during the

preindustrial era when NOx concentrations were lower, thatRONO2 formation was a more important NOx sink than it istoday. Model predictions of preindustrial climate often pre-dict larger ozone concentrations than the semi-quantitativemeasurements of the late 19th/early 20th century indicate(e.g., Mickley et al., 2001; Archibald et al., 2011). Althoughthere may be problems with the ozone measurements or withthe emissions estimates used in the models, this may alsoindicate that models are missing a NOx sink in the preindus-trial era. As shown in Fig. 4, we calculate that the OPE isvery sensitive to the assumed branching ratio, indicating thata small error in RONO2 formation may have a large effect onthe ozone burden.

In industrialized countries, NOx emissions are currentlydecreasing due to air quality control measures (e.g., van derA et al., 2008; Dallmann and Harley, 2010; Russell et al.,2010, 2012). Coupling this decrease in NOx with the increasein biogenic VOC emissions expected in a warmer climate,suggests that RONO2 chemistry will begin to play a moreimportant role in NOx termination in urban and suburban ar-eas. As discussed in Sect. 4.1, the crossover from RONO2to nitric acid accounting for over 50 % of NOx loss occursat ∼ 400 pptv for a 5 % branching ratio and at∼ 950 pptvfor a 10 % branching ratio. Past studies have constrained theeffective branching ratio in urban areas at 4–7 % (Cleary etal., 2005; Farmer et al., 2011; Perring et al., 2010; Rosenet al., 2004), which suggests that to predict ozone in futureclimates, it will be necessary to correctly simulate RONO2chemistry in order to understand regional pollution and airquality.

8 Conclusions

Recent field measurements have indicated that low NOx,high BVOC chemistry is significantly more complex thanthe textbook view of low NOx chemistry being controlledby methane and carbon monoxide. Most of the work on lowNOx, high BVOC chemistry has focused on the implica-tions for the HOx budget. In this paper we analyze how theNOx lifetime responds to changes in RONO2 production un-der these conditions. We find that production of RONO2 ac-counts for the majority of the instantaneous NOx sink in lowNOx, high BVOC environments in both a steady-state modeland a 3-D chemical transport model. Furthermore, the NOxlifetime and OPE are highly sensitive to RONO2 production.These findings suggest that proper representation of RONO2formation and NOx recycling are necessary for accurate cal-culation of past, present, and future ozone concentrations andthe corresponding climate effects.



Appendix A

Effective branching ratio

The effective branching ratio is a measure of the averagebranching ratio for the VOC composition contributing toozone production. For the steady state model, we calculatethe effectiveα value using Eq. (A1):

αeff =αkRO2+NO[RO2]

kCH3O2+NO[CH3O2] + kRO2+NO[RO2](A1)

Here RO2 refers to the lumped peroxy radical from Table 1.This is equivalent to

αeff =P(RONO2)

P (O3) + P(RONO2) − kHO2+NO[HO2][NO](A2)

where

P(O3) = kHO2+NO[HO2][NO] +

∑i

(1− αi)kRO2i+NO[RO2i

][NO]

+kCH3O2+NO[CH3O2][NO] (A3)

P(RONO2) =

∑i

αikRO2i+NO[RO2i

][NO] (A4)

Here we have generalized the production of O3 and RONO2to account for situations of multiple peroxy radicals with anRONO2 formation channel.

Unlike α, αeff changes as a function of NOx due to thedependence ofαeff on the ratio of RO2 to CH3O2. This ra-tio decreases as NOx decreases because RO2+ RO2 reactionswhich form CH3O2, the loss of RO2b by isomerization, andthe importance of RO2+HO2 reactions (which are faster forRO2 than for CH3O2) all increase in importance at low NOx.As a result,αeff decreases as NOx decreases. This decreaseis steepest under low NOx conditions where, due to the highRO2 concentrations, RO2+ RO2 reactions are most impor-tant. As shown in Table 3, the increase inαeff from 10 pptvto 100 pptv (∼ 20–25 % increases) is about twice the increasefrom 100 pptv to 500 pptv NOx (∼ 8–12 % increase).

This definition of effective branching ratio differs slightlyfrom that used by elsewhere in the literature (Rosen et al.,2004; Cleary et al., 2005; Perring et al., 2010; Farmer et al.,2011) where the effective branching ratio is approximated as

αeff ≈2

P(O3)/P (RONO2)≈

2

1[Ox]/1[6ANs](A5)

whereP (O3) andP (RONO2) refer to the production rate ofozone and RONO2 respectively. The second equality usingconcentrations holds under conditions where loss rates aresmall. This derivation relies on the assumption that HO2 andRO2 radicals are present in near equal concentrations (i.e.,that each RO generates a carbonyl and an HO2) and is equalto Eq. (A2) when this assumption is valid. This assumption isappropriate under high NOx conditions where this derivationhas been used previously, but is invalid under low NOx con-ditions where RO2 concentrations are larger than HO2 con-centrations.

140 oW

120oW 100

oW

80o W

54 o

N

57 o

N

60 o

N

63 o

N

66 o

N

69 o

N

50 100 150 200 250>

Fig. B1. NOx (=NO+NO2+NO3+2*N2O5) concentration (pptv)over the WRF-Chem domain. This concentration represents theboundary layer average over two weeks of simulation.

Appendix B

WRF-Chem details

B1 Domain

We run the WRF-Chem model at 36 km× 36 km resolutionwith 29 vertical layers for 23 June–13 July 2008 using mete-orological data from NARR (North American Regional Re-analysis). Biogenic emissions are from MEGAN (Guentheret al., 2006, available athttp://www.acd.ucar.edu/wrf-chem/)and anthropogenic emissions are from RETRO and EDGARusing the global emissions preprocessor for WRF-Chem(Freitas et al., 2011). Boundary conditions come from theMOZART model (Emmons et al., 2010) using GEOS-5 me-teorology (available athttp://www.acd.ucar.edu/wrf-chem/).Photolysis rates are calculated using the FAST-J scheme(Bian and Prather, 2002). WRF-Chem is described in furtherdetail by Grell et al. (2005).

The domain is shown in Fig. B1. We exclude results southof 53◦ N, over water, and over snow/ice. Additionally, we re-move the first five boxes on all sides to allow for relaxationof the boundary conditions which come from the MOZART-4 model using GEOS-5 meteorology (Emmons et al., 2010).For the remainder of the grid boxes, we take a 24 h boundarylayer (a median of 8 vertical levels at midday) average for thelast two weeks of the run. When we bin the results by NOxfor Figs. 5 and 6 (midpoint of the bin shown by the symbolsin the figures), we exclude any bin with fewer than five pointsin the bin. Consequently, all NOx concentrations greater than250 pptv are excluded.

B2 Chemical mechanism

A complete description of the WRF-Chem chemical mech-anism can be found in Browne and Cohen (2012) andBrowne (2012). Here we provide a brief overview of thechemical mechanism which is based on RACM2 chemistry


http://www.acd.ucar.edu/wrf-chem/

http://www.acd.ucar.edu/wrf-chem/


(Goliff and Stockwell, 2010; Stockwell et al., 2010) withsubstantial modifications to the RONO2 and isoprene chem-istry. The isoprene chemistry is based on Paulot et al. (2009a,b) and uses ozonolysis rates of isoprene-derived nitrates fromLockwood et al. (2010). The formation of a hydroperox-yaldehyde (HPALD) from the 1,6 H-shift of isoprene per-oxy radicals is included using the rate constant measured byCrounse et al. (2011). Photolysis of HPALD is the same asassumed in Stavrakou et al. (2010) with the assumption thatone OH is generated. Loss of HPALD also occurs through re-action with OH and is assumed to regenerate OH (Peeters andMuller, 2010). When the first generation isoprene-derived ni-trates react with OH between 0 % and 65 % of the nitrogen isreturned as NOx. The exact amount of NOx returned dependson whether the isoprene nitrate peroxy radical reacts withHO2 (with an assumed 100 % yield of a multi-functional ni-trate) or with NO or other peroxy radicals (to return between∼ 34 % and∼ 65 % of the nitrogen as NOx). Ozonolysis ofthe first generation nitrates is assumed to return 32.7 % (forβ-hydroxy isoprene nitrates) or 44.5 % (forδ-hydroxy iso-prene nitrates) of the nitrogen as per MCM v3.2 (Jenkin et al.,1997; Saunders et al., 2003). Based on Geiger et al. (2003)the NO3+ isoprene reaction forms an organic nitrate that isoxidized by OH to return 0 % of the NOx. There are no re-actions between NO3 and the isoprene-derived nitrates in thechemical mechanism. Monoterpene derived nitrates are oxi-dized to form HNO3; all other nitrates are assumed to releaseNO2 with 100 % efficiency when oxidized by OH.

Photolysis of RONO2 is assumed to release NO2 with100 % efficiency except for the photolysis of the peroxidenitrate formed from reaction of an isoprene nitrate peroxyradical with HO2. As per MCM v3.2, we assume that pho-tolysis results in OH and an alkoxy radical which then de-composes. We assume that∼ 1/3 of the alkoxy radicalswill release NO2 when they decompose. Photolysis cross-sections of RONO2 were calculated using FAST-JX 6.5 (Bianand Prather, 2002) and include enhancement from carbonylgroups (Barnes et al., 1993) and reductions from hydroxygroups (Roberts and Fajer, 1989) where appropriate. Dry de-position rates of RONO2 follow Ito et al. (2007) and there isno wet deposition for any species.

The monoterpene chemistry includes two lumpedmonoterpenes: α-pinene to represent low-reactivitymonoterpenes and limonene to represent high reactiv-ity monoterpenes. The nitrate yield from the reaction of theα-pinene peroxy radical with NO is set to 18% (similar tothat measured by Noziere et al. (1998)) and is set to 22% forthe limonene peroxy radical reaction (based on Leungsakulet al. (2005)). Theα-pinene-derived nitrate is assumed to be amix of both unsaturated (yield of 0.12) and saturated (yield of0.06) nitrates while the limonene-derived nitrate is assumedto be unsaturated. Oxidation rates by OH are calculatedusing weighted averages of the MCM v3.2 rates forα-pineneandβ-pinene (50-50 mixture) for the saturated nitrate andfrom limonene for the unsaturated nitrate. The ozonolysis

rate of the unsaturated nitrate is calculated using the EPAEstimation Program Interface (EPI) Suite v4.1 (availableat http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/exposure/pubs/episuite.htm)(US EPA, 2011). All the oxidation reactions are assumedto form a more highly functionalized nitrate that has thesame chemical properties as HNO3. The oxidation of themonoterpenes by NO3 forms two nitrooxy-peroxy radicals.One of these primarily decomposes (formed 90% of the timefor α-pinene and 29% of the time for limonene) while theother primarily reacts to form a nitrate. We assume that thenitrates formed from these reactions are split 70/30 betweensaturated/unsaturated nitrates.

There is no heterogeneous hydrolysis of N2O5 in theWRF-Chem model, however this should be a small NOx sinkunder low NOx conditions and we anticipate no significantchange to the results if heterogeneous N2O5 hydrolysis wereincluded.

Acknowledgements.We thank Wendy Goliff for providing theRACM2 chemical mechanism and Lukas Valin for helpfuldiscussions regarding the WRF-Chem model. The WRF-Chemmodel was run on the Mako cluster supported by the UC SharedResearch Computing Services and we thank the consultants fortheir technical help. This work was supported by a NASA EarthSystems Science Fellowship to ECB.

Edited by: P. O. Wennberg

References

Alvarado, M. J., Logan, J. A., Mao, J., Apel, E., Riemer, D., Blake,D., Cohen, R. C., Min, K.-E., Perring, A. E., Browne, E. C.,Wooldridge, P. J., Diskin, G. S., Sachse, G. W., Fuelberg, H.,Sessions, W. R., Harrigan, D. L., Huey, G., Liao, J., Case-Hanks,A., Jimenez, J. L., Cubison, M. J., Vay, S. A., Weinheimer, A.J., Knapp, D. J., Montzka, D. D., Flocke, F. M., Pollack, I.B., Wennberg, P. O., Kurten, A., Crounse, J., Clair, J. M. St.,Wisthaler, A., Mikoviny, T., Yantosca, R. M., Carouge, C. C.,and Le Sager, P.: Nitrogen oxides and PAN in plumes from borealfires during ARCTAS-B and their impact on ozone: an integratedanalysis of aircraft and satellite observations, Atmos. Chem.Phys., 10, 9739–9760,doi:10.5194/acp-10-9739-2010, 2010.

Archibald, A. T., Levine, J. G., Abraham, N. L., Cooke, M. C., Ed-wards, P. M., Heard, D. E., Jenkin, M. E., Karunaharan, A., Pike,R. C., Monks, P. S., Shallcross, D. E., Telford, P. J., Whalley, L.K. and Pyle, J. A.: Impacts of HOx regeneration and recyclingin the oxidation of isoprene: Consequences for the compositionof past, present and future atmospheres, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38,L05804,doi:10.1029/2010GL046520, 2011.

Arey, J., Aschmann, S. M., Kwok, E. S. C. and Atkinson, R.:Alkyl nitrate, hydroxyalkyl nitrate, and hydroxycarbonyl forma-tion from the NOx-air photooxidations of C5-C8 n-alkanes, J.Phys. Chem. A, 105, 1020–1027,doi:10.1021/jp003292z, 2001.

Atkinson, R., Aschmann, S. M., Carter, W. P. L., Winer, A. M.and Pitts, J. N.: Alkyl nitrate formation from the nitrogen oxide(NOx)-air photooxidations of C2-C8 n-alkanes, J. Phys. Chem.,86, 4563–4569,doi:10.1021/j100220a022, 1982.


http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-9739-2010

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010GL046520

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp003292z

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/j100220a022


Atkinson, R., Baulch, D. L., Cox, R. A., Crowley, J. N., Hamp-son, R. F., Hynes, R. G., Jenkin, M. E., Rossi, M. J., and Troe, J.:Evaluated kinetic and photochemical data for atmospheric chem-istry: Volume I - gas phase reactions of Ox, HOx, NOx and SOxspecies, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 1461–1738,doi:10.5194/acp-4-1461-2004, 2004.

Atkinson, R., Baulch, D. L., Cox, R. A., Crowley, J. N., Hamp-son, R. F., Hynes, R. G., Jenkin, M. E., Rossi, M. J., Troe, J.,and IUPAC Subcommittee: Evaluated kinetic and photochemi-cal data for atmospheric chemistry: Volume II – gas phase re-actions of organic species, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 3625–4055,doi:10.5194/acp-6-3625-2006, 2006.

Barnes, I., Becker, K. H., and Zhu, T.: Near UV absorption spectraand photolysis products of difunctional organic nitrates: Possibleimportance as NOx reservoirs, J. Atmos. Chem., 17, 353–373,doi:10.1007/BF00696854, 1993.

Beaver, M. R., Clair, J. M. St., Paulot, F., Spencer, K. M., Crounse,J. D., LaFranchi, B. W., Min, K. E., Pusede, S. E., Wooldridge, P.J., Schade, G. W., Park, C., Cohen, R. C., and Wennberg, P. O.:Importance of biogenic precursors to the budget of organic ni-trates: observations of multifunctional organic nitrates by CIMSand TD-LIF during BEARPEX 2009, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12,5773–5785,doi:10.5194/acp-12-5773-2012, 2012.

Bertram, T. H., Heckel, A., Richter, A., Burrows, J. P., andCohen, R. C.: Satellite measurements of daily variationsin soil NOx emissions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L24812,doi:10.1029/2005GL024640, 2005.

Bian, H. and Prather, M. J.: Fast-J2: Accurate Simulation of Strato-spheric Photolysis in Global Chemical Models, J. Atmos. Chem.,41, 281–296,doi:10.1023/A:1014980619462, 2002.

Bonan, G. B. and Levis, S.: Quantifying carbon-nitrogen feedbacksin the Community Land Model (CLM4), Geophys. Res. Lett., 37,L07401,doi:10.1029/2010GL042430, 2010.

Brown, S. S., deGouw, J. A., Warneke, C., Ryerson, T. B., Dube,W. P., Atlas, E., Weber, R. J., Peltier, R. E., Neuman, J. A.,Roberts, J. M., Swanson, A., Flocke, F., McKeen, S. A., Brioude,J., Sommariva, R., Trainer, M., Fehsenfeld, F. C. and Ravis-hankara, A. R.: Nocturnal isoprene oxidation over the NortheastUnited States in summer and its impact on reactive nitrogen par-titioning and secondary organic aerosol, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9,3027–3042,doi:10.5194/acp-9-3027-2009, 2009.

Browne, E. C.: Observational constraints on the photochemistry ofnon-acyl peroxy nitrates and organic nitrates on regional andglobal scales, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berke-ley, U.S.A., 2012.

Browne, E. C. and Cohen, R. C.: Impacts of monoterpene nitrateson NOx and NOy in the Boreal, forest, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Dis-cuss., in preparation, 2012.

Browne, E. C., Min, K.-E., Wooldridge, P. J., Apel, E., Blake, D. R.,Cantrell, C. A., Cubison, M. J., Jimenez, J. L., Weinheimer, A. J.,Wennberg, P. O., Wisthaler, A., and Cohen, R. C.: Observationsof total RONO2 over the Boreal forest: NOx sinks and HNO3sources, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., submitted, 2012.

Carlton, A. G., Pinder, R. W., Bhave, P. V., and Pouliot, G. A.:To what extent can biogenic SOA be controlled?, Environ. Sci.Tech., 44, 3376–3380,doi:10.1021/es903506b, 2010.

Cleary, P. A., Murphy, J. G., Wooldridge, P. J., Day, D. A., Millet,D. B., McKay, M., Goldstein, A. H., and Cohen, R. C.: Observa-tions of total alkyl nitrates within the Sacramento Urban Plume,

Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 5, 4801–4843,doi:10.5194/acpd-5-4801-2005, 2005.

Crounse, J. D., Knap, H. C., Ørnsø, K. B., Jørgensen, S., Paulot,F., Kjaergaard, H. G., and Wennberg, P. O.: Atmospheric fateof methacrolein. 1. Peroxy radical isomerization following ad-dition of OH and O2, J. Phys. Chem. A, 116, 5756–5762,doi:10.1021/jp211560u, 2012.

Crounse, J. D., Paulot, F., Kjaergaard, H. G., and Wennberg, P. O.:Peroxy radical isomerization in the oxidation of isoprene, Phys.Chem. Chem. Phys., 13, 13607,doi:10.1039/c1cp21330j, 2011.

Dallmann, T. R. and Harley, R. A.: Evaluation of mobile sourceemission trends in the United States, J. Geophys. Res., 115,D14305,doi:10.1029/2010JD013862, 2010.

Day, D. A., Farmer, D. K., Goldstein, A. H., Wooldridge, P. J.,Minejima, C., and Cohen, R. C.: Observations of NOx, 6PNs,6ANs, and HNO3 at a Rural Site in the California Sierra NevadaMountains: summertime diurnal cycles, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9,4879–4896,doi:10.5194/acp-9-4879-2009, 2009.

Day, D. A., Wooldridge, P. J., Dillon, M. B., Thornton, J. A.,and Cohen, R. C.: A thermal dissociation laser-induced fluo-rescence instrument for in situ detection of NO2, peroxy ni-trates, alkyl nitrates, and HNO3, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 4046,doi:10.1029/2001JD000779, 2002.

Derwent, R., Stevenson, D., Doherty, R., Collins, W., Sanderson,M., and Johnson, C.: Radiative forcing from surface NOx emis-sions: spatial and seasonal variations, Climatic Change, 88, 385–401,doi:10.1007/s10584-007-9383-8, 2008.

Emmons, L. K., Walters, S., Hess, P. G., Lamarque, J.-F., Pfister,G. G., Fillmore, D., Granier, C., Guenther, A., Kinnison, D.,Laepple, T., Orlando, J., Tie, X., Tyndall, G., Wiedinmyer, C.,Baughcum, S. L., and Kloster, S.: Description and evaluation ofthe Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers, version 4(MOZART-4), Geosci. Model Dev., 3, 43–67,doi:10.5194/gmd-3-43-2010, 2010.

Farmer, D. K. and Cohen, R. C.: Observations of HNO3, 6AN,6PN and NO2 fluxes: evidence for rapid HOx chemistry withina pine forest canopy, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 3899–3917,doi:10.5194/acp-8-3899-2008, 2008.

Farmer, D. K., Perring, A. E., Wooldridge, P. J., Blake, D. R., Baker,A., Meinardi, S., Huey, L. G., Tanner, D., Vargas, O., and Co-hen, R. C.: Impact of organic nitrates on urban ozone production,Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4085–4094,doi:10.5194/acp-11-4085-2011, 2011.

Fiore, A. M., Horowitz, L. W., Purves, D. W., II, H. L., Evans, M.J., Wang, Y., Li, Q., and Yantosca, R. M.: Evaluating the contri-bution of changes in isoprene emissions to surface ozone trendsover the eastern United States, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D12303,doi:10.1029/2004JD005485, 2005.

Freitas, S. R., Longo, K. M., Alonso, M. F., Pirre, M., Marecal,V., Grell, G., Stockler, R., Mello, R. F., and Sanchez Gacita, M.:PREP-CHEM-SRC – 1.0: a preprocessor of trace gas and aerosolemission fields for regional and global atmospheric chemistrymodels, Geosci. Model Dev., 4, 419–433,doi:10.5194/gmd-4-419-2011, 2011.

Fry, J. L., Kiendler-Scharr, A., Rollins, A. W., Brauers, T., Brown,S. S., Dorn, H.-P., Dube, W. P., Fuchs, H., Mensah, A., Rohrer,F., Tillmann, R., Wahner, A., Wooldridge, P. J., and Cohen, R. C.:SOA from limonene: role of NO3 in its generation and degrada-tion, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 3879–3894,doi:10.5194/acp-11-





http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00696854


http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GL024640

http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1014980619462

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010GL042430


http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es903506b

http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acpd-5-4801-2005


http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp211560u

http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c1cp21330j

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010JD013862


http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2001JD000779

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-9383-8

http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-3-43-2010





http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005485





3879-2011, 2011.Fry, J. L., Kiendler-Scharr, A., Rollins, A. W., Wooldridge, P. J.,

Brown, S. S., Fuchs, H., Dube, W., Mensah, A., dal Maso,M., Tillmann, R., Dorn, H.-P., Brauers, T., and Cohen, R.C.: Organic nitrate and secondary organic aerosol yield fromNO3 oxidation ofβ-pinene evaluated using a gas-phase kinet-ics/aerosol partitioning model, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 1431–1449,doi:10.5194/acp-9-1431-2009, 2009.

Fry, M. M., Naik, V., West, J. J., Schwarzkopf, M. D., Fiore, A.M., Collins, W. J., Dentener, F. J., Shindell, D. T., Atherton,C., Bergmann, D., Duncan, B. N., Hess, P., MacKenzie, I. A.,Marmer, E., Schultz, M. G., Szopa, S., Wild, O., and Zeng, G.:The influence of ozone precursor emissions from four world re-gions on tropospheric composition and radiative climate forcing,J. Geophys. Res., 117, D07306,doi:10.1029/2011JD017134,2012.

Fuglestvedt, J. S., Berntsen, T. K., Isaksen, I. S. A., Mao,H. T., Liang, X. Z., and Wang, W. C.: Climatic forcing ofnitrogen oxides through changes in tropospheric ozone andmethane; global 3D model studies, Atmos. Environ., 33, 961–977,doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(98)00217-9, 1999.

Galloway, J. N., Townsend, A. R., Erisman, J. W., Bekunda, M.,Cai, Z., Freney, J. R., Martinelli, L. A., Seitzinger, S. P., andSutton, M. A.: Transformation of the Nitrogen cycle: Recenttrends, questions, and potential solutions, Science, 320, 889–892,doi:10.1126/science.1136674, 2008.

Geiger, H., Barnes, I., Bejan, J., Benter, T., and Spittler, M.: The tro-pospheric degradation of isoprene: an updated module for the re-gional atmospheric chemistry mechanism, Atmos. Environ., 37,1503–1519,doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(02)01047-6, 2003.

Ghude, S. D., Lal, D. M., Beig, G., A, R. van der and Sable, D.:Rain-induced soil NOx emission from India during the onset ofthe summer monsoon: A satellite perspective, J. Geophys. Res.,115, D16304,doi:10.1029/2009JD013367, 2010.

Goliff, W. and Stockwell, W. R.: The Regional Atmospheric Chem-istry Mechanism, Version 2 – a final frozen version at last, At-mospheric Chemical Mechanisms Conference, Davis, CA, USA,2010.

Grell, G. A., Peckham, S. E., Schmitz, R., McKeen, S. A., Frost, G.,Skamarock, W. C., and Eder, B.: Fully coupled “online” chem-istry within the WRF model, Atmos. Environ., 39, 6957–6975,doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.04.027, 2005.

Guenther, A., Karl, T., Harley, P., Wiedinmyer, C., Palmer, P. I.,and Geron, C.: Estimates of global terrestrial isoprene emissionsusing MEGAN (Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols fromNature), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 3181–3210,doi:10.5194/acp-6-3181-2006, 2006.

Henderson, B. H., Pinder, R. W., Crooks, J., Cohen, R. C., Carlton,A. G., Pye, H. O. T., and Vizuete, W.: Combining Bayesian meth-ods and aircraft observations to constrain the HO• + NO2 reac-tion rate, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 653–667,doi:10.5194/acp-12-653-2012, 2012.

Holland, E. A., Braswell, B. H., Lamarque, J.-F., Townsend, A.,Sulzman, J., Muller, J.-F., Dentener, F., Brasseur II, G.,, H. L.,Penner, J. E., and Roelofs, G.-J.: Variations in the predicted spa-tial distribution of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and their im-pact on carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems, J. Geophys.Res., 102, 15849–15866,doi:10.1029/96JD03164, 1997.

Horowitz, L. W., Fiore, A. M., Milly, G. P., Cohen, R. C., Perring,A., Wooldridge, P. J., Hess, P. G., Emmons, L. K., and Lamar-que, J.-F.: Observational constraints on the chemistry of isoprenenitrates over the eastern United States, J. Geophys. Res., 112,D12S08,doi:10.1029/2006JD007747, 2007.

Horowitz, L. W., Liang, J., Gardner, G. M., and Jacob, D. J.: Ex-port of reactive nitrogen from North America during summer-time: Sensitivity to hydrocarbon chemistry, J. Geophys. Res.,103, 13451–13476,doi:10.1029/97JD03142, 1998.

Hudman, R. C., Jacob, D. J., Turquety, S., Leibensperger, E. M.,Murray, L. T., Wu, S., Gilliland, A. B., Avery, M., Bertram, T.H., Brune, W., Cohen, R. C., Dibb, J. E., Flocke, F. M., Fried, A.,Holloway, J., Neuman, J. A., Orville, R., Perring, A., Ren, X.,Sachse, G. W., Singh, H. B., Swanson, A., and Wooldridge, P. J.:Surface and lightning sources of nitrogen oxides over the UnitedStates: Magnitudes, chemical evolution, and outflow, J. Geophys.Res., 112, D12S05,doi:10.1029/2006JD007912, 2007.

Hudman, R. C., Russell, A. R., Valin, L. C., and Cohen, R. C.: Inter-annual variability in soil nitric oxide emissions over the UnitedStates as viewed from space, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 9943–9952,doi:10.5194/acp-10-9943-2010, 2010.

Ito, A., Sillman, S., and Penner, J. E.: Effects of addi-tional nonmethane volatile organic compounds, organic ni-trates, and direct emissions of oxygenated organic species onglobal tropospheric chemistry, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D06309,doi:10.1029/2005JD006556, 2007.

Ito, A., Sillman, S., and Penner, J. E.: Global chemical trans-port model study of ozone response to changes in chemicalkinetics and biogenic volatile organic compounds emissionsdue to increasing temperatures: Sensitivities to isoprene nitratechemistry and grid resolution, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D09301,doi:10.1029/2008JD011254, 2009.

Jacob, D. J., Crawford, J. H., Maring, H., Clarke, A. D., Dibb, J. E.,Emmons, L. K., Ferrare, R. A., Hostetler, C. A., Russell, P. B.,Singh, H. B., Thompson, A. M., Shaw, G. E., McCauley, E., Ped-erson, J. R., and Fisher, J. A.: The Arctic Research of the Compo-sition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS)mission: design, execution, and first results, Atmos. Chem. Phys.,10, 5191–5212,doi:10.5194/acp-10-5191-2010, 2010.

Jaegle, L., Steinberger, L., Martin, R. V. and Chance, K.: Globalpartitioning of NOx sources using satellite observations: Relativeroles of fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning and soil emis-sions, Faraday Discuss., 130, 407–423,doi:10.1039/b502128f,2005.

Jenkin, M. E., Saunders, S. M., and Pilling, M. J.: The tropo-spheric degradation of volatile organic compounds: a proto-col for mechanism development, Atmos. Environ., 31, 81–104,doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(96)00105-7, 1997.

Lelieveld, J., Butler, T. M., Crowley, J. N., Dillon, T. J., Fis-cher, H., Ganzeveld, L., Harder, H., Lawrence, M. G., Martinez,M., Taraborrelli, D., and Williams, J.: Atmospheric oxidationcapacity sustained by a tropical forest, Nature, 452, 737–740,doi:10.1038/nature06870, 2008.

Leungsakul, S., Jeffries, H. E. and Kamens, R. M.: A kineticmechanism for predicting secondary aerosol formation fromthe reactions of d-limonene in the presence of oxides of ni-trogen and natural sunlight, Atmos. Environ., 39, 7063—7082,doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.08.024, 2005.




http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011JD017134

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(98)00217-9

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1136674

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(02)01047-6

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JD013367

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.04.027





http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/96JD03164

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007747


http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007912


http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006556

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008JD011254


http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b502128f

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(96)00105-7

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06870



Lockwood, A. L., Filley, T. R., Rhodes, D., and Shepson, P. B.: Fo-liar uptake of atmospheric organic nitrates, Geophys. Res. Lett.,35, L15809,doi:10.1029/2008GL034714, 2008.

Lockwood, A. L., Shepson, P. B., Fiddler, M. N., and Alagh-mand, M.: Isoprene nitrates: preparation, separation, identifica-tion, yields, and atmospheric chemistry, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10,6169–6178,doi:10.5194/acp-10-6169-2010, 2010.

Mao, J., Ren, X., Brune, W. H., Van Duin, D. M., Cohen, R. C.,Park, J.-H., Goldstein, A. H., Paulot, F., Beaver, M. R., Crounse,J. D., Wennberg, P. O., DiGangi, J. P., Henry, S. B., Keutsch, F.N., Park, C., Schade, G. W., Wolfe, G. M., and Thornton, J. A.:Insights into hydroxyl measurements and atmospheric oxidationin a California forest, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 12, 6715–6744,doi:10.5194/acpd-12-6715-2012, 2012.

Mebust, A. K., Russell, A. R., Hudman, R. C., Valin, L. C., andCohen, R. C.: Characterization of wildfire NOx emissions us-ing MODIS fire radiative power and OMI tropospheric NO2columns, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5839–5851,doi:10.5194/acp-11-5839-2011, 2011.

Mickley, L. J., Jacob, D. J., and Rind, D.: Uncertainty in preindus-trial abundance of tropospheric ozone: Implications for radiativeforcing calculations, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 3389–3399, 2001.

Murphy, J. G., Day, D. A., Cleary, P. A., Wooldridge, P. J., and Co-hen, R. C.: Observations of the diurnal and seasonal trends in ni-trogen oxides in the western Sierra Nevada, Atmos. Chem. Phys.,6, 5321–5338,doi:10.5194/acp-6-5321-2006, 2006.

Novelli, P. C., Lang, P. M., Masarie, K. A., Hurst, D. F., Myers, R.and Elkins, J. W.: Molecular hydrogen in the troposphere: Globaldistribution and budget, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 104, 30427–30444,doi:10.1029/1999JD900788, 1999.

Noziere, B., Barnes, I. and Becker, K.-H.: Product study andmechanisms of the reactions ofα-pinene and of pinon-aldehyde with OH radicals, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 23645-–23656,doi:10.1029/1999JD900778, 1999.

Parrish, D. D., Aikin, K. C., Oltmans, S. J., Johnson, B. J., Ives,M., and Sweeny, C.: Impact of transported background ozone in-flow on summertime air quality in a California ozone exceedancearea, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 10093–10108,doi:10.5194/acp-10-10093-2010, 2010.

Paulot, F., Crounse, J. D., Kjaergaard, H. G., Kroll, J. H., Seinfeld, J.H., and Wennberg, P. O.: Isoprene photooxidation: new insightsinto the production of acids and organic nitrates, Atmos. Chem.Phys., 9, 1479–1501,doi:10.5194/acp-9-1479-2009, 2009a.

Paulot, F., Crounse, J. D., Kjaergaard, H. G., Kurten, A., Clair, S.,M, J., Seinfeld, J. H., and Wennberg, P. O.: Unexpected EpoxideFormation in the Gas-Phase Photooxidation of Isoprene, Science,325, 730–733,doi:10.1126/science.1172910, 2009b.

Paulot, F., Henze, D. K., and Wennberg, P. O.: Impact of the iso-prene photochemical cascade on tropical ozone, Atmos. Chem.Phys., 12, 1307–1325,doi:10.5194/acp-12-1307-2012, 2012.

Peeters, J. and Muller, J.-F.: HOx radical regeneration in isopreneoxidation via peroxy radical isomerisations. II: experimental ev-idence and global impact, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 12, 14227,doi:10.1039/c0cp00811g, 2010.

Peeters, J., Nguyen, T. L., and Vereecken, L.: HOx radical regener-ation in the oxidation of isoprene, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 11,5935,doi:10.1039/b908511d, 2009.

Perring, A. E., Bertram, T. H., Farmer, D. K., Wooldridge, P. J.,Dibb, J., Blake, N. J., Blake, D. R., Singh, H. B., Fuelberg,

H., Diskin, G., Sachse, G., and Cohen, R. C.: The productionand persistence of6RONO2 in the Mexico City plume, At-mos. Chem. Phys., 10, 7215–7229,doi:10.5194/acp-10-7215-2010, 2010.

Perring, A. E., Bertram, T. H., Wooldridge, P. J., Fried, A., Heikes,B. G., Dibb, J., Crounse, J. D., Wennberg, P. O., Blake, N. J.,Blake, D. R., Brune, W. H., Singh, H. B., and Cohen, R. C.: Air-borne observations of total RONO2: new constraints on the yieldand lifetime of isoprene nitrates, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 1451–1463,doi:10.5194/acp-9-1451-2009, 2009a.

Perring, A. E., Pusede, S. E., and Cohen, R. C.: An observationalperspective on the atmospheric impacts of alkyl and multifunc-tional nitrates on ozone and secondary organic aerosol, Chem.Rev., in preparation, 2012.

Perring, A. E., Wisthaler, A., Graus, M., Wooldridge, P. J., Lock-wood, A. L., Mielke, L. H., Shepson, P. B., Hansel, A., and Co-hen, R. C.: A product study of the isoprene+NO3 reaction, At-mos. Chem. Phys., 9, 4945–4956,doi:10.5194/acp-9-4945-2009,2009b.

Pinder, R. W., Davidson, E. A., Goodale, C. L., Greaver, T. L.,Herrick, J. D., and Liu, L.: Climate change impacts of USreactive nitrogen, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 7671–7675,doi:10.1073/pnas.1114243109, 2012.

Pye, H. O. T., Chan, A. W. H., Barkley, M. P., and Seinfeld, J.H.,: Global modeling of organic aerosol: the importance of reac-tive nitrogen (NOx and NO3), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11261–11276,doi:10.5194/acp-10-11261-2010, 2010.

Roberts, J. M. and Fajer, R. W.: UV absorption cross sections oforganic nitrates of potential atmospheric importance and estima-tion of atmospheric lifetimes, Environ. Sci. Technol., 23, 945–951,doi:10.1021/es00066a003, 1989.

Rollins, A. W., Kiendler-Scharr, A., Fry, J. L., Brauers, T., Brown,S. S., Dorn, H.-P., Dube, W. P., Fuchs, H., Mensah, A., Mentel, T.F., Rohrer, F., Tillmann, R., Wegener, R., Wooldridge, P. J., andCohen, R. C.: Isoprene oxidation by nitrate radical: alkyl nitrateand secondary organic aerosol yields, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9,6685–6703,doi:10.5194/acp-9-6685-2009, 2009.

Rollins, A. W., Browne, E. C., Min, K.-E., Pusede, S. E.,Wooldridge, P. J., Gentner, D. R., Goldstein, A. H., Liu, S., Day,D. A., Russell, L. M. and Cohen, R. C.: Evidence for NOx con-trol over nighttime SOA formation, Science, 337, 1210-–1212,doi:10.1126/science.1221520, 2012.

Rosen, R. S., Wood, E. C., Wooldridge, P. J., Thornton, J.A., Day, D. A., Kuster, W., Williams, E. J., Jobson, B. T.,and Cohen, R. C.: Observations of total alkyl nitrates dur-ing Texas Air Quality Study 2000: Implications for O3 andalkyl nitrate photochemistry, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D07303,doi:10.1029/2003JD004227, 2004.

Russell, A. R., Valin, L. C., Bucsela, E. J., Wenig, M. O., and Co-hen, R. C.: Space-based constraints on spatial and temporal pat-terns of NOx emissions in California, 2005–2008, Environ. Sci.Technol., 44, 3608–3615,doi:10.1021/es903451j, 2010.

Russell, A. R., Valin, L. C., and Cohen, R. C.: Trends in OMI NO2observations over the US: effects of emission control technologyand the economic recession, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 12,15419–15452,doi:10.5194/acpd-12-15419-2012, 2012.

Sander, S. P., Abbatt, J., Barker, J. R., Burkholder, J. B., Friedl,R. R., Golden, D. M., Huie, R. E., Kolb, C. E., Kurylo, M. J.,Moortgat, G. K., Orkin, V. L., and Wine, P. H.: Chemical kinet-


http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034714






http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900788

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900778






http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c0cp00811g

http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b908511d





http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114243109


http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es00066a003



http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004227

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es903451j



ics and photochemical data for use in atmospheric studies, Eval-uation No. 17, JPL Publication 10-6, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Pasadena, 2011,http://jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov, 2011.

Saunders, S. M., Jenkin, M. E., Derwent, R. G., and Pilling, M.J.: Protocol for the development of the Master Chemical Mech-anism, MCM v3 (Part A): tropospheric degradation of non-aromatic volatile organic compounds, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3,161–180,doi:10.5194/acp-3-161-2003, 2003.

Schumann, U. and Huntrieser, H.: The global lightning-inducednitrogen oxides source, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 3823–3907,doi:10.5194/acp-7-3823-2007, 2007.

Sillman, S. and Samson, P. J.: Impact of temperature onoxidant photochemistry in urban, polluted rural and re-mote environments, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 11497–11508,doi:10.1029/94JD02146, 1995.

St. Clair, J. M., McCabe, D. C., Crounse, J. D., Steiner, U., andWennberg, P. O.: Chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometerfor the in situ measurement of methyl hydrogen peroxide, Rev.Sci. Instrum., 81, 094102,doi:10.1063/1.3480552, 2010.

Stavrakou, T., Peeters, J., and Muller, J.-F.: Improved global mod-elling of HOx recycling in isoprene oxidation: evaluation againstthe GABRIEL and INTEX-A aircraft campaign measurements,Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 9863–9878,doi:10.5194/acp-10-9863-2010, 2010.

Stockwell, W. R., Goliff, W. S., and Lawson, C. V.: RACM De-velopments, Atmospheric Chemical Mechanisms Conference,Davis, CA, USA, 2010.

Stone, D., Evans, M. J., Edwards, P. M., Commane, R., Ingham,T., Rickard, A. R., Brookes, D. M., Hopkins, J., Leigh, R. J.,Lewis, A. C., Monks, P. S., Oram, D., Reeves, C. E., Stewart, D.,and Heard, D. E.: Isoprene oxidation mechanisms: measurementsand modelling of OH and HO2 over a South-East Asian tropicalrainforest during the OP3 field campaign, Atmos. Chem. Phys.,11, 6749–6771,doi:10.5194/acp-11-6749-2011, 2011.

Taraborrelli, D., Lawrence, M. G., Crowley, J. N., Dillon, T. J.,Gromov, S., Groß, C. B. M., Vereecken, L., and Lelieveld,J.: Hydroxyl radical buffered by isoprene oxidation over tropi-cal forests, Nature Geosci., 5, 190–193,doi:10.1038/ngeo1405,2012.

Thornberry, T., Carroll, M. A., Keeler, G. J., Sillman, S., Bertman,S. B., Pippin, M. R., Ostling, K., Grossenbacher, J. W., Shepson,P. B., Cooper, O. R., Moody, J. L., and Stockwell, W. R.: Ob-servations of reactive oxidized nitrogen and speciation of NOyduring the PROPHET summer 1998 intensive, J. Geophys. Res.,106, 24359–24386,doi:10.1029/2000JD900760, 2001.

Thornton, P. E., Doney, S. C., Lindsay, K., Moore, J. K., Ma-howald, N., Randerson, J. T., Fung, I., Lamarque, J.-F., Fed-dema, J. J., and Lee, Y.-H.: Carbon-nitrogen interactions regu-late climate-carbon cycle feedbacks: results from an atmosphere-ocean general circulation model, Biogeosciences, 6, 2099–2120,doi:10.5194/bg-6-2099-2009, 2009.

Thornton, P. E., Lamarque, J.-F., Rosenbloom, N. A., andMahowald, N. M.: Influence of carbon-nitrogen cycle cou-pling on land model response to CO2 fertilization andclimate variability, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 21, GB4018,doi:10.1029/2006GB002868, 2007.

Trainer, M., Buhr, M. P., Curran, C. M., Fehsenfeld, F. C., Hsie, E.Y., Liu, S. C., Norton, R. B., Parrish, D. D., Williams, E. J., Gan-drud, B. W., Ridley, B. A., Shetter, J. D., Allwine, E. J., and West-berg, H. H.: Observations and modeling of the reactive nitrogenphotochemistry at a rural site, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 3045–3063,doi:10.1029/90JD02395, 1991.

US EPA: Estimation programs interface Suite for Microsoft Win-dows v4.1, 2011.

Valin, L. C., Russell, A. R., Hudman, R. C., and Cohen, R.C.: Effects of model resolution on the interpretation of satel-lite NO2 observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 11647–11655,doi:10.5194/acp-11-11647-2011, 2011.

van der A, R. J., Eskes, H. J., Boersma, K. F., Noije, T. P. C. van,Roozendael, M. V., Smedt, I. D., Peters, D. H. M. U., and Mei-jer, E. W.: Trends, seasonal variability and dominant NOx sourcederived from a ten year record of NO2 measured from space, J.Geophys. Res., 113, D04302,doi:10.1029/2007JD009021, 2008.

von Kuhlmann, R., Lawrence, M. G., Poschl, U., and Crutzen, P. J.:Sensitivities in global scale modeling of isoprene, Atmos. Chem.Phys., 4, 1–17,doi:10.5194/acp-4-1-2004, 2004.

Whalley, L. K., Edwards, P. M., Furneaux, K. L., Goddard, A., In-gham, T., Evans, M. J., Stone, D., Hopkins, J. R., Jones, C. E.,Karunaharan, A., Lee, J. D., Lewis, A. C., Monks, P. S., Moller,S. J., and Heard, D. E.: Quantifying the magnitude of a missinghydroxyl radical source in a tropical rainforest, Atmos. Chem.Phys., 11, 7223–7233,doi:10.5194/acp-11-7223-2011, 2011.

Wiedinmyer, C., Quayle, B., Geron, C., Belote, A., McKenzie, D.,Zhang, X., O’Neill, S., and Wynne, K. K.: Estimating emissionsfrom fires in North America for air quality modeling, Atmos.Environ., 40, 3419–3432,doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.02.010,2006.

Wild, O., Prather, M. J., and Akimoto, H.: Indirect long-term globalradiative cooling from NOx emissions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28,1719–1722,doi:10.1029/2000GL012573, 2001.

Wu, S., Mickley, L. J., Jacob, D. J., Logan, J. A., Yantosca, R. M.,and Rind, D.: Why are there large differences between modelsin global budgets of tropospheric ozone?, J. Geophys. Res., 112,D05302,doi:10.1029/2006JD007801, 2007.

Zhang, L., Jacob, D. J., Boersma, K. F., Jaffe, D. A., Olson, J. R.,Bowman, K. W., Worden, J. R., Thompson, A. M., Avery, M.A., Cohen, R. C., Dibb, J. E., Flock, F. M., Fuelberg, H. E.,Huey, L. G., McMillan, W. W., Singh, H. B., and Weinheimer,A. J.: Transpacific transport of ozone pollution and the effect ofrecent Asian emission increases on air quality in North Amer-ica: an integrated analysis using satellite, aircraft, ozonoesond,and surface observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 6117–6136,doi:10.5194/acp-8-6117-2008, 2008.


http://jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov




http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3480552




http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1405

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900760

http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-2099-2009

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006GB002868



http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009021




http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000GL012573

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007801


effects of biogenic nitrate chemistry on the no …...received: 21 june 2012 – published in atmos....

Documents