[SLS Pre-Defense] Ishir Dutta

“The Global Tropospheric Budget of NOy”

Emissions of nitrogen oxides in the troposphere are central to the formation of a variety of secondary pollutants (e.g., nitric acid, ozone, and secondary inorganic and organic aerosol) that have deleterious effects on air quality, ecosystems, and climate. However, the global burden and fluxes amongst various forms of atmospheric NOy have not yet been fully characterized. Furthermore, there exist many uncertainties in the relative importance of different NOy formation and loss pathways, e.g., aerosol nitrate photolysis, NO2 aerosol uptake, and N2O5 hydrolysis. We use the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model to characterize the global tropospheric NOy budget and to test the sensitivity of this budget to some of these chemical uncertainties. Finally, we evaluate the model performance against measurements of NOy species made aboard the ATom airborne campaign to better constrain uncertainties in the model’s representation of NOy chemistry.

Sack Lunch Seminar Series —
Informal seminar series within PAOC (Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate) that focuses on more specialized topics than the PAOC Colloquium. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest.

Contact: sacklunch-committee@mit.edu