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Radical chemisty in the Antarctic boundary layer - ACPD PDF

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Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 15109–15165, 2010 D Atmospheric is www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/15109/2010/ Chemistry cu ACPD s doi:10.5194/acpd-10-15109-2010 and Physics s © Author(s) 2010. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Discussions ion 10,15109–15165,2010 P a p e Radical chemisty in Thisdiscussionpaperis/hasbeenunderreviewforthejournalAtmosphericChemistry r the Antarctic andPhysics(ACP).PleaserefertothecorrespondingfinalpaperinACPifavailable. | boundary layer D is c W.J.Bloss u Coupling of HO , NO and halogen s s x x io n chemistry in the Antarctic boundary layer P a TitlePage p e r Abstract Introduction 1 1 2 3 3 W. J. Bloss , M. Camredon , J. D. Lee , D. E. Heard , J. M. C. Plane , | A. Saiz-Lopez4, S. J.-B. Bauguitte5, R. A. Salmon5, and A. E. Jones5 Conclusions References D is 1SchoolofGeography,Earth&EnvironmentalSciences,UniversityofBirmingham, cu Tables Figures s Edgbaston,Birmingham,B152TT,UK s io 2DepartmentofChemistry,UniversityofYork,Heslington,York,YO105DD,UK n J I 3SchoolofChemistry,UniversityofLeeds,Leeds,LS29JT,UKandNationalCentrefor Pa p J I AtmosphericScience,SchoolofChemistry,UniversityofLeeds,Leeds,LS29JT,UK e r 4LaboratoryforAtmosphericandClimateScience,ConsejoSuperiordeInvestigaciones Back Close | Cientificas(CSIC),Toledo,Spain 5BritishAntarcticSurvey,NaturalEnvironmentResearchCouncil,HighCross, D FullScreen/Esc MadingleyRoad,Cambridge,CB30ET,UK isc u s Received: 26May2010–Accepted: 5June2010–Published: 21June2010 sio Printer-friendlyVersion n Correspondenceto: W.J.Bloss([email protected]) P InteractiveDiscussion a p PublishedbyCopernicusPublicationsonbehalfoftheEuropeanGeosciencesUnion. e r 15109 | Abstract D is c ACPD u A modelling study of radical chemistry in the coastal Antarctic boundary layer, based s s upon observations performed in the course of the CHABLIS (Chemistry of the Antarc- ion 10,15109–15165,2010 tic Boundary Layer and the Interface with Snow) campaign at Halley Research Station P a p 5 in coastal Antarctica during the austral summer 2004/2005, is described: a detailed er Radical chemisty in zero-dimensional photochemical box model was used, employing inorganic and or- the Antarctic | ganic reaction schemes drawn from the Master Chemical Mechanism, with additional boundary layer halogen (iodine and bromine) reactions added. The model was constrained to obser- D is vations of long-lived chemical species, measured photolysis rates and meteorological c W.J.Bloss u s parameters, and the simulated levels of HO , NO and XO compared with those ob- s 10 x x io served. The model was able to replicate the mean levels and diurnal variation in the n P halogenoxidesIOandBrO,andtoreproduceNO levelsandspeciationverywell. The a TitlePage x p NO sourcetermimplementedcomparedwellwiththatdirectlymeasuredinthecourse e x r Abstract Introduction of the CHABLIS experiments. The model systematically overestimated OH and HO 2 | levels, likely a consequence of the combined effects of (a) estimated physical param- Conclusions References 15 D eters and (b) uncertainties within the halogen, particularly iodine, chemical scheme. is c Tables Figures The principal sources of HO radicals were the photolysis and bromine-initiated oxida- u x s tion of HCHO, together with O(1D)+H2O. The main sinks for HOx were peroxy radical sion J I self- and cross-reactions, with the sum of all halogen-mediated HO loss processes x P a 20 accountingfor40%ofthetotalsink. Reactionswiththehalogenmonoxidesdominated p J I e CH O –HO –OH interconversion, with associated local chemical ozone destruction in r 3 2 2 place of the ozone production which is associated with radical cycling driven by the | Back Close analogous NO reactions. The analysis highlights the need for observations of physi- D FullScreen/Esc calparameterssuchasaerosolsurfaceareaandboundarylayerstructuretoconstrain is c u 25 suchcalculations,andthedependenceofsimulatedradicallevelsandozonelossrates ss Printer-friendlyVersion uponanumberofuncertainkineticandphotochemicalparametersforiodinespecies. io n P InteractiveDiscussion a p e r 15110 | 1 Introduction D is c ACPD u The chemistry of the sunlit troposphere is dominated by the reactions of the hydroxyl s s radical, OH, which is responsible for initiating the degradation of most hydrocarbons ion 10,15109–15165,2010 andotherspeciesemittedtotheatmosphere. Knowledgeofatmospherichydroxyllev- P a p 5 els (OH), of related species such as HO2 (collectively HOx), and the chemical pro- er Radical chemisty in cesses which govern their abundance, is central to explaining current atmospheric the Antarctic | trace gas distributions and predicting their likely future evolution. boundary layer Interest inthe chemistry ofthe polar boundarylayer, and the atmosphericchemistry D is abovethesurfaceofthepolaricesheetsandseaice,hasgrowninrecentyears,driven c W.J.Bloss u s in part by interest in understanding atmospheric evolution through measurements of s 10 io trace gases in air trapped in ice cores and firn. In addition to climatic information de- n P rived from long-lived tracers such as CO levels and various isotope ratios, measure- a TitlePage 2 p ments of sulphur, nitrate and peroxide levels have all been used to infer historic atmo- e r Abstract Introduction spheric composition (e.g., Wolff, 1995; Legrand and Mayewski, 1997); understanding | the chemical environment in which these species are deposited and incorporated in Conclusions References 15 D firn/ice, i.e. the background chemistry of the polar boundary layers, is clearly impor- is c Tables Figures tant for such analyses. From the perspective of the modern atmosphere, interest in u s the polar boundary layer has also been driven by the observation of periodic surface sio n J I ozone depletion events linked to bromine chemistry in the Arctic, and the recognition P 20 that snowpack can act as a source of nitrogen oxides NO and NO2 (collectively NOx), ap J I e HONO,HCHOandperoxides,amongstotherspecies,therebymodifyingtheboundary r layer composition from what might be expected for regions very remote from pollutant Back Close | sources (Grannas et al., 2007). D FullScreen/Esc This paper presents a model analysis of boundary layer chemistry based upon ob- is c 25 servations made in the coastal Antarctic boundary layer during the CHABLIS (Chem- us s Printer-friendlyVersion istry of the Antarctic Boundary Layer and the Interface with Snow) campaign at Hal- io n leyResearchStationincoastalAntarctica.Azero-dimensionaldetailedphotochemical P InteractiveDiscussion a boxmodelisemployed,constrainedbyobservedlevelsoflong-livedchemicalspecies, p e r 15111 | meteorological and photochemical parameters, to simulate concentrations of short- D is lived radical species. A particular focus is the model’s ability to reproduce the levels c ACPD u s and diurnal profiles of HO and NO measured during the austral summer, and the s x x io 10,15109–15165,2010 impact of halogen chemistry upon radical cycling and in situ chemical ozone produc- n P tion/destruction. a 5 p e Radical chemisty in r the Antarctic 2 Context | boundary layer D The first high latitude boundary layer measurements of OH were performed at Palmer is c W.J.Bloss u Station,acoastalsiteonAnversIsland,locatedapproximatelyhalfwaydownthewest- s s ern side of the Antarctic Peninsula (64.0◦W, 64.7◦S), during the 1993/1994 austral io n summer using Chemical Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (CIMS; Jefferson et al., 1998). P 10 a TitlePage OH concentrations were low, ranging from (1–9)×105moleccm−3. Box model simu- p e lations, using a model constrained to observed VOC levels (CO, CH and C H were r Abstract Introduction 4 2 6 the only species found to be important) and radiation agreed well with the OH mea- | Conclusions References surements, if NO levels of 1–5pmol/mol (ppt) (below the detection limit of the monitor D deployed) were assumed. Primary production, O(1D)+H O, was found to account for isc Tables Figures 15 2 u over 70% of the total OH production over the diurnal cycle. ss io Subsequent studies in the Arctic and Antarctic identified the snowpack as a source n J I P of a number of reactive species: HCHO (Sumner and Shepson, 1999; Hutterli et al., a p J I 1999),NO (Honrathetal.,1999;Jonesetal.,2000)andpotentiallyHONO(Zhouetal., e x r 2001) and higher aldehydes (Grannas et al., 2002). Such emissions will significantly 20 Back Close | alter the anticipated HO levels: HCHO and higher aldehydes will act as HO sources x x upon photolysis (and as OH sinks), while NO will drive radical cycling and HO to D FullScreen/Esc x 2 is OH conversion, potentially leading to ozone production, and heterogeneous HONO cu s production followed by photolysis will result in a direct source of both NO and OH s Printer-friendlyVersion io (Grannas et al., 2007 and references therein). n 25 P InteractiveDiscussion MeasurementsofOHperformedatSouthPole(altitude=2835m)foundmuchhigher a p levels of OH than those observed at Palmer Station; average OH concentrations er 15112 | 6 −3 D of (2–2.5)×10 cm were reported during the austral summers of 1998 and 2000 is c ACPD (Mauldin et al., 1999, 2004). These levels can be compared with the daily maximum u s levels (7×105cm−3) from Palmer Station (similar solar zenith angle). The South Pole sio 10,15109–15165,2010 n OH data were consistent with rapid radical cycling driven by snowpack emissions of P NO , the effect of which was enhanced by the low boundary layer height at South a 5 x p e Radical chemisty in Pole station (Chen et al., 2001; Davis et al., 2001). While agreement between ob- r served and modelled OH and HO +RO levels was satisfactory for moderate levels of the Antarctic 2 2 | boundary layer NO (ca. 100pmol/mol in this environment), at lower and higher NO levels the model D over predicted the observed OH; moreover inclusion of measured HONO levels in the is c W.J.Bloss 10 model led to a large overestimate of the measured NOx, OH and HO2+RO2 levels uss (Chen et al., 2004). Subsequent observations of HONO using a photofragmentation- io n LIF technique found the HONO abundance to be much lower (by a factor of 7) than P a TitlePage mist-chamber/ion chromatography data suggested (Liao et al., 2006). Further mea- p e surements were performed during the 2003 ANTCI (Antarctic Tropospheric Chemistry r Abstract Introduction 6 −3 Investigation) project, finding comparable OH levels of typically (1.5–2.5)×10 cm | 15 Conclusions References (Mauldin et al., 2010), with even higher NO levels (up to 1ppb) than observed previ- D ously (Eisele et al., 2008). Box model calculations of OH constrained by observations isc Tables Figures u of longer-lived species systematically overestimated the measured OH levels by a fac- s s tor of 2–3with no clear cause for the discrepancy identified (Mauldin et al., 2010). ion J I HO have also been measured above snowpack at Summit, Greenland: Sjostedt et P 20 x a al. (2007) used chemical ionisation mass-spectrometry to measure OH radicals and pe J I thesumoforganicandinorganicperoxyradicals(ΣHO +RO )attheSummitresearch r 2 2 Back Close station (altitude=3200m) during summer (June/July) 2003. Median radical levels of | 6.4×106cm−3 (OH)and2.2×108cm−3 (ΣHO +RO )wereobserved,muchhigherthan D FullScreen/Esc 2 2 is the earlier South Pole observations, which can be explained in part by the lower so- c 25 u s lar zenith angles and higher humidity and ozone levels at Summit. Model calculations, s Printer-friendlyVersion io constrainedtoobservedradicalsourcesincludingHCHO,H O andHONOwerefound n 2 2 P InteractiveDiscussion toreplicatetheobservedperoxyradicallevelsverywellwhentheHONOsourcewasre- a p moved,withamodestoverestimate(27%)withtheinclusionofHONO.ForOHradicals e r 15113 | howeverthemeasuredvalueswerefoundtobeafactorof2–3timeshigherthanthose D is modelled,pointingtomissingchemicalprocesses(OHsourcesand/orHO /RO →OH c ACPD 2 2 u s conversion processes). Sjostedt et al. noted that the model:observations (M/O) ratio s io 10,15109–15165,2010 was highest during periods of high wind, and when back-trajectory calculations indi- n P cated that air masses had recently originated from the surrounding marine boundary a 5 p layer,andhypothesisedthathalogenreactionsmayberesponsibleforperoxyradicalto e Radical chemisty in r OH conversion and hence the M/O discrepancy, although no halogen measurements the Antarctic | wereavailableduringthecampaign. Modelsimulationsoftheseobservations(Chenet boundary layer al., 2007) were able to reproduce the observed peroxy radical (HO2+RO2) levels, but Dis c W.J.Bloss again underestimated OH levels by a factor of 2. Primary HO sources were found to u 10 x s be O(1D)+H2O and photolysis of HCHO and H2O2, with snowpack emissions forming sio n a significant source of these, particularly for H O , while the dominant HO sink was 2 2 x P a TitlePage theHO2 self-reaction. AstheNOx levelswereloweratSummitthanSouthPole,overall pe HOx abundance was driven by the rates of primary production and termination, rather r Abstract Introduction 15 than NOx-driven cycling processes. | Conclusions References A wide variation in radical concentrations, and the levels of related species with D snowpack sources (NO , H O , HCHO) is thus observed in overtly similar polar en- is x 2 2 c Tables Figures vironments, probably driven largely by differences in local dynamical factors (stabil- us s ity/boundary layer height) and as a consequence of processes within the snowpack io n J I leading to the production of NO , HONO and aldehydes amongst others; it is within P 20 x a this context that the radical data from the CHABLIS campaign in coastal Antarctica is p J I e r analysed here. Back Close Halogen species are also known to be of importance in some polar regions, with | bromine chemistry in particular involved in the surface ozone depletion events ob- D FullScreen/Esc is 25 servedinthecoastalareasofbothpolarregions(Simpsonetal.,2007andreferences cu therein). During CHABLIS, the halogen monoxides IO and BrO were observed by s s Printer-friendlyVersion DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) at levels of up to 20pmol/mol ion (Saiz-Lopez et al., 2007a). Halogen chemistry is expected to lead to direct cat- P InteractiveDiscussion a p alytic ozone destruction, and will also perturb the NO and HO cycles giving rise e x x r 15114 | to indirect effects upon local oxidising capacity; Saiz-Lopez et al. (2008) used an un- D is constrained 1-dimensional model to calculate a chemical ozone loss rate at Halley of c ACPD u −1 −1 s up to 0.55nmol/molh (ppbh ), and substantially increased OH and reduced HO s 2 io 10,15109–15165,2010 levels,byca.50%ineachcase. Subsequently,Bauguitteetal.(2009)haveshownthat n P the observed NO levels are consistent with a NO lifetime of the order of 6h, shorter a 5 x x p than would be anticipated for such a remote location, thought to be a consequence e Radical chemisty in r of the hydrolysis of halogen nitrates constituting a significant additional NO sink. In the Antarctic x | this paper, we extend these analyses using all the available observations from the boundary layer D CHABLIS campaign to constrain the model simulations, with a particular focus upon is c W.J.Bloss HO as the species most sensitive to in situ chemical processing within the Antarctic u 10 x s coastal boundary layer. sio n P a TitlePage p 3 Measurement overview e r Abstract Introduction The CHABLIS (the Chemistry of the Antarctic Boundary layer and the Interface with | Conclusions References Snow) measurement campaign was conducted at the British Antarctic Survey’s Hal- D ley (V) Research Station, located on the Brunt Ice Shelf off Coats Land, at 75◦350S, isc Tables Figures 15 u 26◦390W. A full description of the CHABLIS project, site details and measurements ss io performed is given by Jones et al. (2008); pertinent details are summarised here. The n J I P base is located on a peninsula of the ice sheet, surrounded by the Weddell Sea to a p J I the North around (counter clockwise) to the South West, with the permanent ice front e r located15–30kmfromthebasedependingupondirection;thebaselocationisapprox- 20 Back Close | imately32ma.s.l. Duringtheperiodoftheobservationsusedhere(January–February 2005), the sea ice cover had almost entirely dissipated. The prevailing wind was from D FullScreen/Esc is ca. 80◦, corresponding to a uniform fetch of several hundred km over the ice shelf. cu s Themeasurementsite,comprisingashippingcontainerhousingtheLIFinstrumentfor s Printer-friendlyVersion io HO measurements, and an adjacent Clean Air Sector Laboratory (CASLab) housing n 25 x P InteractiveDiscussion the remaining instruments, was located ca. 1km upwind of the other base buildings a p (and generators), at the apex of a clean air sector encompassing the prevailing wind er 15115 | direction, within and above which vehicle and air traffic movements were prohibited. D is Measurements were performed over a 13-month period from January 2004, with an c ACPD u s intensive summer measurement campaign, January–February 2005, which included s io 10,15109–15165,2010 the HO measurements considered here. n x P The observations used in this analysis are summarised in Table 1. OH and HO a 5 2 p radicals were measured by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy, using the e Radical chemisty in r FluorescenceAssaybyGasExpansionmethodology;fulldetailsofthemeasurements the Antarctic | are given in Bloss et al. (2007). The LIF instrument had a sampling height of 4.5–5m boundary layer D above the snow surface, and was co-located with inlets for measurement of humidity is c W.J.Bloss and ozone levels. NO was detected by chemiluminescence and NO was measured u 10 2 s following its conversion to NO (photolytic converter) – Cotter et al. (2003)/Bauguitte et sio n al. (2009). The NO instrument was housed within the CASLab, and sampled from x P the laboratory’s main manifold, with an inlet height approximately 8m above the snow a TitlePage p e surface. Nitrous acid (soluble nitrite) was measured by scrubbing gas-phase HONO r Abstract Introduction into aqueous solution in a mist chamber, followed by derivatisation to 2,4-DNPH and 15 | HPLC/absorbance detection (Clemitshaw, 2006). The halogen monoxide radicals IO Conclusions References D and BrO were measured by Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS); the is c Tables Figures DOAS instrument and telescope were housed within the CASLab, while a retro re- us s flector array was positioned 4km due East of the measurement site, with the beam io n J I 20 path approximately 5m above the snow surface. Further details of the instrument and P a IO/BrO observations are given in Saiz-Lopez et al. (2007a). VOCs (volatile organic p J I e compounds) were measured by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detection r Back Close (GC-FID):ethane–benzene,DMS(Readetal.,2007;2008). Formaldehydewasmea- | sured via scrubbing into sulphuric acid followed by the Hantsch reaction/fluorescence D FullScreen/Esc 25 (Aerolaser 4021 monitor; Salmon et al., 2008). VOCs and HCHO were sampled from isc u theCASLabinlet,8mabovethesnowsurface. NomeasurementsofoxygenatedVOCs s s Printer-friendlyVersion (other than HCHO) were attempted – the potential abundance of these species and io n theirinfluenceisconsideredlater. LevelsofCH andH atHalleyinJanuary/February P InteractiveDiscussion 4 2 a 2005 were 1720 and 546nmol/mol, respectively (NOAA Global Monitoring Division pe r 15116 | flask analyses). Ozone was measured by UV absorption (Thermo 49C) and carbon D is monoxide by VUV fluorescence (Aerolaser AL5001, calibrated from a ±5% accuracy c ACPD u s standard cylinder). s io 10,15109–15165,2010 Otherenvironmentalparametersused inthisstudyincludehumidity, determinedus- n P ing a dew-point hygrometer (General Eastern 1311) and solar radiation: Actinic flux a 5 p was measured using a 2-π spectral radiometer (Meteorologie Consult GmbH), pe- e Radical chemisty in r riodically inverted to determine the upwelling flux. Meteorological parameters were the Antarctic | determined using Campbell Scientific weather stations at various locations around the boundary layer D measurementsite–thetemperatureusedinthemodelanalysiscorrespondstotheLIF is c W.J.Bloss instrument inlet height. Boundary layer structure and stability was to have been deter- u 10 s mined using a SODAR array which was unfortunately inoperable during the CHABLIS sio summer measurement period; previous data (Ko¨nig-Langlo et al., 1998; Jones et al., n P 2008) suggested a typical boundary layer height of 100m, which is adopted as the a TitlePage p e initial estimate in this work; the sensitivity of the model results to this parameter is r Abstract Introduction evaluated. 15 | Conclusions References D 3.1 Data processing/base generator pollution events is c Tables Figures u s All observations were analysed on a 10-min timebase. In the case of high-resolution s io measurements (HO , NO , HCHO, photolysis rates, and meteorological parameters) n J I x x P the mean of all observations within each 10-min window was used (where data were a p J I available). In the case of low frequency measurements (VOCs; 60–90min) the data e 20 r were interpolated. A pollution filter was then applied to all data: Halley obtains its Back Close | power from a set of generators which were located ca. 1km from the measurement D FullScreen/Esc site. On occasion (10.0% of all observation points) the generator exhaust was sam- is c pled at the CASLab site (identified from local wind direction and NO levels) and the u x s s Printer-friendlyVersion 25 data were flagged as potentially polluted. Such observations were excluded from all io n model-observationcomparisonsreportedbelow. Inadditiontothebasesectorpollution P InteractiveDiscussion a events, times at which there were gaps in the dataseries for long-lived species (NOx, pe O ,CO,HCHO,NMHCs,radiationmeasurements)duetoinstrumentaldifficultieswere r 3 15117 | excluded from the measurement-model comparison; in total 1963 10-min data points D is remained, representing ca. 55% of all HO observations. c ACPD x u s s io 10,15109–15165,2010 n 4 Model description P a p e Radical chemisty in TheHO -NO -XO interactionswereinvestigatedusingazero-dimensionalboxmodel, r x x x the Antarctic 5 comprisingstandardinorganicandorganicreactionkineticsandphotochemistrytaken | boundary layer from the Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM) version 3.1 (http://mcm.leeds.ac.uk/). D The DMS oxidation scheme used by Sommariva et al. (2006)/Carslaw et al. (1999) is c W.J.Bloss u was added. A halogen (iodine and bromine) reaction scheme was implemented as s s described below. The model incorporated a simple representation of heterogeneous io n processes from the perspective of loss of gas phase species, and dry deposition. The P 10 a TitlePage model ran within the FACSIMILE integration package, outputting species for compari- p e son with observations on a 10-min timestep, with a five-day spin-up period employed r Abstract Introduction for each day simulated. | Conclusions References D 4.1 Photolysis rates isc Tables Figures u s s 15 Photolysisratesusedinthemodelweretakenfromthedirectobservationsinthecases ion J I of j(O1D) and j(NO ) (Jones et al., 2008). Photolysis rates for other species were cal- P 2 a culated following the algorithms of Hough et al. (1988) as implemented in the MCM p J I e (version3.1),andwerethenscaledbytheratioofthecalculatedandobservedj(NO ) r 2 Back Close values (Sommariva et al., 2006). For species not included in the MCM (those listed | 20 in Supplementary Table S1 – iodine and bromine compounds) photolysis rates were D FullScreen/Esc calculated from the measured values of j(NO2), using a scaling factor determined as iscu the mean ratio of the photolysis rate in question to j(NO ), calculated using clear-sky s 2 s Printer-friendlyVersion actinicfluxdatafromTUV(MadronichandFlocke,1998)averagedoverthe.SZArange io n appropriate to the CHABLIS summer measurement period, employing the cross sec- P InteractiveDiscussion a p 25 tions/quantum yields listed in Table S1. The uncertainty introduced by this approach – e r 15118 |

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Jun 21, 2010 10, 15109–15165, 2010. Radical chemisty in the Antarctic boundary layer. W. J. Bloss. Title Page. Abstract. Introduction. Conclusions.
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