Global tropospheric halogen (Cl, Br, I) chemistry and its impact on oxidants
Name
acp-21-13973-2021.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
9.18 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ec033a4e37b6636dac3b6cfc4b06c005
Author(s)
Wang, Xuan
Jacob, Daniel J
Downs, William
Zhai, Shuting
Zhu, Lei
Shah, Viral
Holmes, Christopher D
Sherwen, Tomás
Alexander, Becky
Evans, Mathew J
Date Issued
September 21, 2021
Journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Citation
Wang, X., Jacob, D. J., Downs, W., Zhai, S., Zhu, L., Shah, V., Holmes, C. D., Sherwen, T., Alexander, B., Evans, M. J., Eastham, S. D., Neuman, J. A., Veres, P. R., Koenig, T. K., Volkamer, R., Huey, L. G., Bannan, T. J., Percival, C. J., Lee, B. H., and Thornton, J. A.: Global tropospheric halogen (Cl, Br, I) chemistry and its impact on oxidants, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13973–13996.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present an updated mechanism for tropospheric halogen (Cl + Br + I) chemistry in the GEOS-Chem global atmospheric chemical transport model and apply it to investigate halogen radical cycling and implications for tropospheric oxidants. Improved representation of HOBr heterogeneous chemistry and its pH dependence in our simulation leads to less efficient recycling and mobilization of bromine radicals and enables the model to include mechanistic sea salt aerosol debromination without generating excessive BrO. The resulting global mean tropospheric BrO mixing ratio is 0.19 ppt (parts per trillion), lower than previous versions of GEOS-Chem. Model BrO shows variable consistency and biases in comparison to surface and aircraft observations in marine air, which are often near or below the detection limit. The model underestimates the daytime measurements of Cl2 and BrCl from the ATom aircraft campaign over the Pacific and Atlantic, which if correct would imply a very large missing primary source of chlorine radicals. Model IO is highest in the marine boundary layer and uniform in the free troposphere, with a global mean tropospheric mixing ratio of 0.08 ppt, and shows consistency with surface and aircraft observations. The modeled global mean tropospheric concentration of Cl atoms is 630 cm−3, contributing 0.8 % of the global oxidation of methane, 14 % of ethane, 8 % of propane, and 7 % of higher alkanes. Halogen chemistry decreases the global tropospheric burden of ozone by 11 %, NOx by 6 %, and OH by 4 %. Most of the ozone decrease is driven by iodine-catalyzed loss. The resulting GEOS-Chem ozone simulation is unbiased in the Southern Hemisphere but too low in the Northern Hemisphere.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13973-2021
