Opinion: Beyond global means – novel space-based approaches to indirectly constrain the concentrations of and trends and variations in the tropospheric hydroxyl radical (OH)
Name
acp-24-13001-2024.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.09 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
dad1062a899a5710b731989fe778448f
Author(s)
Duncan, Bryan N
Anderson, Daniel C
Fiore, Arlene M
Joiner, Joanna
Krotkov, Nickolay A
Li, Can
Millet, Dylan B
Nicely, Julie M
Oman, Luke D
St. Clair, Jason M
Date Issued
November 26, 2024
Journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Citation
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13001–13023, 2024
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The hydroxyl radical (OH) plays a central role in tropospheric chemistry, as well as influencing the lifetimes of some greenhouse gases. Because of limitations in our ability to observe OH, we have historically relied on indirect methods to constrain its concentrations, trends, and variations but only as annual global or annual semi-hemispheric averages. Recent methods demonstrated the feasibility of indirectly constraining tropospheric OH on finer spatio-temporal scales using satellite observations as proxies for the photochemical drivers of OH (e.g., nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, isoprene, water vapor, ozone). We found that there are currently reasonable satellite proxies to constrain up to about 75 % of the global sources of tropospheric OH and up to about 50 % of the global sinks. With additional research and investment in observing various volatile organic compounds, there is potential to constrain an additional 10 % of the global sources and 30 % of the global sinks. We propose steps forward for the development of a comprehensive space-based observing strategy, which will improve our ability to indirectly constrain OH on much finer spatio-temporal scales than previously achieved. We discuss the strengths and limitations of such an observing strategy and potential improvements to current satellite instrument observing capabilities that would enable better constraint of OH. Suborbital observations (i.e., data collected from non-satellite platforms such as aircraft, balloons, and buildings) are required to collect information difficult to obtain from space and for validation of satellite-based OH estimates; therefore, they should be an integral part of a comprehensive observing strategy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13001-2024
