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Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Response of lightning NOx emissions and ozone production to climate change
T2 - Insights from the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project
AU - Finney, D. L.
AU - Doherty, R. M.
AU - Wild, Oliver
AU - Young, Paul John
AU - Butler, A.
PY - 2016/5/28
Y1 - 2016/5/28
N2 - Results from an ensemble of models are used to investigate the response of lightning nitrogen oxide emissions to climate change and the consequent impacts on ozone production. Most models generate lightning using a parameterization based on cloud top height. With this approach and a present-day global emission of 5 TgN, we estimate a linear response with respect to changes in global surface temperature of +0.44 ± 0.05 TgN K-1. However, two models using alternative approaches give +0.14 and −0.55 TgN K-1 suggesting that the simulated response is highly dependent on lightning parameterization. Lightning NOx is found to have an ozone production efficiency of 6.5 ± 4.7 times that of surface NOx sources. This wide range of efficiencies across models is partly due to the assumed vertical distribution of the lightning source and partly to the treatment of nonmethane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) chemistry. Careful consideration of the vertical distribution of emissions is needed, given its large influence on ozone production.
AB - Results from an ensemble of models are used to investigate the response of lightning nitrogen oxide emissions to climate change and the consequent impacts on ozone production. Most models generate lightning using a parameterization based on cloud top height. With this approach and a present-day global emission of 5 TgN, we estimate a linear response with respect to changes in global surface temperature of +0.44 ± 0.05 TgN K-1. However, two models using alternative approaches give +0.14 and −0.55 TgN K-1 suggesting that the simulated response is highly dependent on lightning parameterization. Lightning NOx is found to have an ozone production efficiency of 6.5 ± 4.7 times that of surface NOx sources. This wide range of efficiencies across models is partly due to the assumed vertical distribution of the lightning source and partly to the treatment of nonmethane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) chemistry. Careful consideration of the vertical distribution of emissions is needed, given its large influence on ozone production.
KW - Lighning
KW - Ozone
KW - Climate
KW - ACCMIP
U2 - 10.1002/2016GL068825
DO - 10.1002/2016GL068825
M3 - Journal article
VL - 43
SP - 5492
EP - 5500
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
SN - 0094-8276
IS - 10
ER -