Evidence for strong, widespread chlorine radical chemistry associated with pollution outflow from continental Asia

Baker, Angela K., Sauvage, Carina, Thorenz, Ute R., van Velthoven, Peter, Oram, David E., Zahn, Andreas, Brenninkmeijer, Carl A M and Williams, Jonathan (2016) Evidence for strong, widespread chlorine radical chemistry associated with pollution outflow from continental Asia. Scientific Reports, 6. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

The chlorine radical is a potent atmospheric oxidant, capable of perturbing tropospheric oxidative cycles normally controlled by the hydroxyl radical. Significantly faster reaction rates allow chlorine radicals to expedite oxidation of hydrocarbons, including methane, and in polluted environments, to enhance ozone production. Here we present evidence, from the CARIBIC airborne dataset, for extensive chlorine radical chemistry associated with Asian pollution outflow, from airborne observations made over the Malaysian Peninsula in winter. This region is known for persistent convection that regularly delivers surface air to higher altitudes and serves as a major transport pathway into the stratosphere. Oxidant ratios inferred from hydrocarbon relationships show that chlorine radicals were regionally more important than hydroxyl radicals for alkane oxidation and were also important for methane and alkene oxidation (>10%). Our observations reveal pollution-related chlorine chemistry that is both widespread and recurrent, and has implications for tropospheric oxidizing capacity, stratospheric composition and ozone chemistry.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Atmospheric Chemistry (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climate, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	07 Dec 2016 00:06
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 01:57
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/61597
DOI:	10.1038/srep36821

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