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München, Germany

Lu K.D.,Peking University | Lu K.D.,Julich Research Center | Rohrer F.,Julich Research Center | Holland F.,Julich Research Center | And 16 more authors.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | Year: 2014

Nighttime HOx chemistry was investigated in two ground-based field campaigns (PRIDE-PRD2006 and CAREBEIJING2006) in summer 2006 in China by comparison of measured and modeled concentration data of OH and HO2. The measurement sites were located in a rural environment in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) under urban influence and in a suburban area close to Beijing, respectively. In both locations, significant nighttime concentrations of radicals were observed under conditions with high total OH reactivities of about 40-50 sg'1 in PRD and 25 sg'1 near Beijing. For OH, the nocturnal concentrations were within the range of (0.5-3) × 106 cmg'3, implying a significant nighttime oxidation rate of pollutants on the order of several ppb per hour. The measured nighttime concentration of HO2 was about (0.2-5) × 108 cmg'3, containing a significant, model-estimated contribution from RO2 as an interference. A chemical box model based on an established chemical mechanism is capable of reproducing the measured nighttime values of the measured peroxy radicals and $k-{\text{OH}}$, but underestimates in both field campaigns the observed OH by about 1 order of magnitude. Sensitivity studies with the box model demonstrate that the OH discrepancy between measured and modeled nighttime OH can be resolved, if an additional ROx production process (about 1 ppb hg'1) and additional recycling (RO2 g†' HO2 g†' OH) with an efficiency equivalent to 1 ppb NO is assumed. The additional recycling mechanism was also needed to reproduce the OH observations at the same locations during daytime for conditions with NO mixing ratios below 1 ppb. This could be an indication that the same missing process operates at day and night. In principle, the required primary ROx source can be explained by ozonolysis of terpenoids, which react faster with ozone than with OH in the nighttime atmosphere. However, the amount of these highly reactive biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) would require a strong local source, for which there is no direct evidence. A more likely explanation for an additional ROx source is the vertical downward transport of radical reservoir species in the stable nocturnal boundary layer. Using a simplified one-dimensional two-box model, it can be shown that ground-based NO emissions could generate a large vertical gradient causing a downward flux of peroxy acetic nitrate (PAN) and peroxymethacryloyl nitrate (MPAN). The downward transport and the following thermal decomposition of these compounds can produce up to 0.3 ppb hg'1 radicals in the atmospheric layer near the ground. Although this rate is not sufficient to explain the complete OH discrepancy, it indicates the potentially important role of vertical transport in the lower nighttime atmosphere. © Author(s) 2014. Source

Dlugi R.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Berger M.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Zelger M.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Hofzumahaus A.,Julich Research Center | And 5 more authors.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | Year: 2014

An inhomogeneous mixing of reactants causes a reduction of their chemical removal compared to the homogeneously mixed case in turbulent atmospheric flows. This can be described by the intensity of segregation IS being the covariance of the mixing ratios of two species divided by the product of their means. Both terms appear in the balance equation of the mixing ratio and are discussed for the reaction between isoprene and OH for data of the field study ECHO 2003 above a deciduous forest. For most of these data, IS is negatively correlated with the fraction of mean OH mixing ratio reacting with isoprene. IS is also negatively correlated with the isoprene standard deviation. Both findings agree with model results discussed by Patton et al. (2001) and others. The correlation coefficient between OH and isoprene and, therefore, IS increases with increasing mean reaction rate. In addition, the balance equation of the covariance between isoprene and OH is applied as the theoretical framework for the analysis of the same field data. The storage term is small, and, therefore, a diagnostic equation for this covariance can be derived. The chemical reaction term Rij is dominated by the variance of isoprene times the quotient of mixing ratios of OH and isoprene. Based on these findings a new diagnostic equation for IS is formulated. Comparing different terms of this equation, IS and Rij show a relation also to the normalised isoprene standard deviation. It is shown that not only chemistry but also turbulent and convective mixing and advection - considered in a residual term - influence IS. Despite this finding, a detection of the influence of coherent eddy transport above the forest according to Katul et al. (1997) on IS fails, but a relation to the turbulent and advective transport of isoprene variance is determined. The largest values of IS are found for most unstable conditions with increasing buoyant production, confirming qualitatively model predictions by Ouwersloot et al. (2011). © Author(s) 2014. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Source

Dlugi R.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Berger M.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Zelger M.,Arbeitsgruppe Atmospharische Prozesse AGAP | Hofzumahaus A.,Julich Research Center | And 10 more authors.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | Year: 2010

The eddy covariance method was applied for the first time to estimate fluxes of OH and HO2 together with fluxes of isoprene, the sum of methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MACR) and the sum of monoterpenes above a mixed deciduous forest. Highly sensitive measurements of OH and HO 2 were performed by laser induced fluorescence (LIF), and biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) were measured by Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) at a time resolution of 5 s, each. Wind speed was measured by a sonic anemometer at 10 Hz. The one-day feasibility study was conducted at a total height of 37 m, about 7m above forest canopy, during the ECHO (Emission and CHemical transformation of biogenic volatile Organic compounds) intensive field study in July 2003. The daytime measurements yielded statistically significant OH fluxes directed downward into the direction of the canopy and HO2 fluxes mainly upward out of the canopy. This hints towards a significant local chemical sink of OH by reactions with BVOCs, other organic and inorganic compounds and conversion of OH to HO2 above the canopy. For OH the measured flux is locally balanced by chemical sources and sinks and direct transport of OH plays no important role for the local chemical OH budget at the measurement height, as expected from the short OH lifetime (<1 s). For HO2 the chemical lifetime (20 s) is in the range of the turbulent transport time for transfer between the top of the canopy and themeasuring point. In this case, the radical balance is significantly influenced by both chemistry and transport processes. In addition, the highly time-resolved trace gas measurements were used to calculate the intensity of segregation of OH and BVOCs, demonstrating that the effective reaction rate of isoprene and OH was slowed down as much as 15% due to inhomogeneous mixing of the reactants. The paper describes the results, the applied methods and provides a detailed analysis of possible systematic errors of the covariance products. © 2010 Author(s). Source

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