Large contribution of biomass burning emissions to ozone throughout the global remote troposphere

Ozone is the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane but has a larger uncertainty in its radiative forcing, in part because of uncertainty in the source characteristics of ozone precursors, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic carbon that directly affect ozone formation chemistry. Tropospheric ozone also negatively affects human and ecosystem health. Biomass burning (BB) and urban emissions are significant but uncertain sources of ozone precursors. Here, we report globalscale, in situ airborne measurements of ozone and precursor source tracers from the NASA Atmospheric Tomography mission. Measurements from the remote troposphere showed that tropospheric ozone is regularly enhanced above background in polluted air masses in all regions of the globe. Ozone enhancements in air with high BB and urban emission tracers (2.1 to 23.8 ppbv [parts per billion by volume]) were generally similar to those in BB-influenced air (2.2 to 21.0 ppbv) but larger than those in urbaninfluenced air (27.7 to 6.9 ppbv). Ozone attributed to BB was 2 to 10 times higher than that from urban sources in the Southern Hemisphere and the tropical Atlantic and roughly equal to that from urban sources in the Northern Hemisphere and the tropical Pacific. Three independent global chemical transport models systematically underpredict the observed influence of BB on tropospheric ozone. Potential reasons include uncertainties in modeled BB injection heights and emission inventories, export efficiency of BB emissions to the free troposphere, and chemical mechanisms of ozone production in smoke. Accurately accounting for intermittent but large and widespread BB emissions is required to understand the global tropospheric ozone burden.

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Author Bourgeois, Ilann
Peischl, Jeff
Neuman, J. Andrew
Brown, Steven S.
Thompson, Chelsea R.
Aikin, Kenneth C.
Allen, Hannah M.
Angot, Hélène
Apel, Eric C.
Baublitz, Colleen B.
Brewer, Jared F.
Campuzano-Jost, Pedro
Commane, Róisín
Crounse, John D.
Daube, Bruce C.
DiGangi, Joshua P.
Diskin, Glenn S.
Emmons, Louisa K.
Fiore, Arlene M.
Gkatzelis, Georgios I.
Hills, Alan
Hornbrook, Rebecca S.
Huey, L. Gregory
Jimenez, Jose L.
Kim, Michelle
Lacey, Forrest
McKain, Kathryn
Murray, Lee T.
Nault, Benjamin A.
Parrish, David D.
Ray, Eric
Sweeney, Colm
Tanner, David
Wofsy, Steven C.
Ryerson, Thomas B.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2021-12-28T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:33:58.213301
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:24926
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Bourgeois, Ilann, Peischl, Jeff, Neuman, J. Andrew, Brown, Steven S., Thompson, Chelsea R., Aikin, Kenneth C., Allen, Hannah M., Angot, Hélène, Apel, Eric C., Baublitz, Colleen B., Brewer, Jared F., Campuzano-Jost, Pedro, Commane, Róisín, Crounse, John D., Daube, Bruce C., DiGangi, Joshua P., Diskin, Glenn S., Emmons, Louisa K., Fiore, Arlene M., Gkatzelis, Georgios I., Hills, Alan, Hornbrook, Rebecca S., Huey, L. Gregory, Jimenez, Jose L., Kim, Michelle, Lacey, Forrest, McKain, Kathryn, Murray, Lee T., Nault, Benjamin A., Parrish, David D., Ray, Eric, Sweeney, Colm, Tanner, David, Wofsy, Steven C., Ryerson, Thomas B.. (2021). Large contribution of biomass burning emissions to ozone throughout the global remote troposphere. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7wh2ths. Accessed 23 July 2025.

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