Relationship between lightning activity and tropospheric nitrogen dioxide and the estimation of lightning-produced nitrogen oxides over China

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• 作者：Fengxia Guo ; Xiaoyu Ju ; Min Bao ; Ganyi Lu ; Zupei Liu…
• 关键词：lightning ; tropospheric NO2 ; LNOX
• 刊名：Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：34
• 期：2
• 页码：235-245
• 全文大小：
• 刊物主题：Atmospheric Sciences; Meteorology; Geophysics/Geodesy;
• 出版者：Science Press
• ISSN：1861-9533
• 卷排序：34

文摘

To better understand the relationship between lightning activity and nitrogen oxides (NO_X) in the troposphere and to estimate lightning-produced NO_X (LNO_X) production in China more precisely, spatial and temporal distributions of vertical column densities of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂ VCDs) and lightning activity were analyzed using satellite measurements. The results showed that the spatial distribution of lightning activity is greater in the east than in the west of China, as with NO₂ VCDs. However, the seasonal and annual variation between lightning and NO₂ density show different trends in the east and west. The central Tibetan Plateau is sparsely populated without modern industry, and NO₂ VCDs across the plateau are barely affected by anthropogenic sources. The plateau is an ideal area to study LNO_X. By analyzing 15 years of satellite data from that region, it was found that lightning density is in strong agreement with annual, spatial and seasonal variations of NO₂ VCDs, with a correlation coefficient of 0.79 from the linear fit. Combining Beirle’s method and the linear fit equation, LNO_X production in the Chinese interior was determined to be 0.07 (0.02–0.27) TgN yr−1 for 1997–2012, within the range of 0.016–0.384 TgN yr−1 from previous estimates.