Identification

Title

WACCM climate chemistry sensitivity to sprite perturbations

Abstract

Transient luminous events affect Earth's atmosphere between thunderstorm tops and the lower ionosphere through ion-neutral chemistry reactions. Particular emphasis has been given to sprites, with models and observations suggesting a capability of perturbing atmospheric nitrogen oxides at a local level, as it is known to occur for tropospheric lightning and laboratory air discharges. However, it is as yet unknown whether sprites can be a relevant source of nitrogen oxides for the upper atmosphere. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to sprite-like nitrogen oxide perturbations. We take a top-down approach to estimate what magnitude sprite perturbations should have to become significant as compared to other relevant atmospheric processes and study the sensitivity of the model response within the given uncertainties. We show that, based on current predictions by sprite streamer chemistry models, sprites can perturb Tropical NOx at 70 km altitude between 0.015 ppbv (buried in the background variability) and 0.15 ppbv (about 20%), adopting a local NOx production per sprite of 1.5·10²³ and 1.5·10²⁴ molecules respectively at this altitude. Below the lowest of the adopted values, sprites are irrelevant at global scales. Sprite NOx may build up to significantly larger amounts locally above active thunderstorms, further aided by other transient luminous events and possibly terrestrial gamma ray flashes. We also use model results to interpret the available observational studies and give recommendations for future campaigns.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7wh2qxx

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2014-06-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact