Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations

<p>Previous assessments on modelling Arctic tropospheric ozone (O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span>) have shown that most atmospheric models continue to experience difficulties in simulating tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"...

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Main Authors: W. Gong, S. R. Beagley, K. Toyota, H. Skov, J. H. Christensen, A. Lupu, D. Pendlebury, J. Zhang, U. Im, Y. Kanaya, A. Saiz-Lopez, R. Sommariva, P. Effertz, J. W. Halfacre, N. Jepsen, R. Kivi, T. K. Koenig, K. Müller, C. Nordstrøm, I. Petropavlovskikh, P. B. Shepson, W. R. Simpson, S. Solberg, R. M. Staebler, D. W. Tarasick, R. Van Malderen, M. Vestenius
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2025-08-01
Series:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Online Access:https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/8355/2025/acp-25-8355-2025.pdf
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author W. Gong
S. R. Beagley
K. Toyota
H. Skov
J. H. Christensen
A. Lupu
D. Pendlebury
J. Zhang
U. Im
Y. Kanaya
A. Saiz-Lopez
R. Sommariva
R. Sommariva
P. Effertz
P. Effertz
J. W. Halfacre
N. Jepsen
R. Kivi
T. K. Koenig
K. Müller
C. Nordstrøm
I. Petropavlovskikh
I. Petropavlovskikh
P. B. Shepson
W. R. Simpson
S. Solberg
R. M. Staebler
D. W. Tarasick
R. Van Malderen
M. Vestenius
author_facet W. Gong
S. R. Beagley
K. Toyota
H. Skov
J. H. Christensen
A. Lupu
D. Pendlebury
J. Zhang
U. Im
Y. Kanaya
A. Saiz-Lopez
R. Sommariva
R. Sommariva
P. Effertz
P. Effertz
J. W. Halfacre
N. Jepsen
R. Kivi
T. K. Koenig
K. Müller
C. Nordstrøm
I. Petropavlovskikh
I. Petropavlovskikh
P. B. Shepson
W. R. Simpson
S. Solberg
R. M. Staebler
D. W. Tarasick
R. Van Malderen
M. Vestenius
author_sort W. Gong
collection DOAJ
description <p>Previous assessments on modelling Arctic tropospheric ozone (O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span>) have shown that most atmospheric models continue to experience difficulties in simulating tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> in the Arctic, particularly in capturing the seasonal variations at coastal sites, primarily attributed to the lack of representation of surface bromine<span id="page8356"/> chemistry in the Arctic. In this study, two independent chemical transport models (CTMs), DEHM (Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model) and GEM-MACH (Global Environmental Multi-scale – Modelling Air quality and Chemistry), were used to simulate Arctic lower-tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> for the year 2015 at considerably higher horizontal resolutions (25 and 15 km, respectively) than the large-scale models in the previous assessments. Both models include bromine chemistry but with different mechanistic representations of bromine sources from snow- and ice-covered polar regions: a blowing-snow bromine source mechanism in DEHM and a snowpack bromine source mechanism in GEM-MACH. Model results were compared with a suite of observations in the Arctic, including hourly observations from surface sites and mobile platforms (buoys and ships) and ozonesonde profiles, to evaluate models' ability to simulate Arctic lower-tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span>, particularly in capturing the seasonal variations and the key processes controlling these variations.</p> <p>Both models are found to behave quite similarly outside the spring period and are able to capture the observed overall surface O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> seasonal cycle and synoptic-scale variabilities, as well as the O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> vertical profiles in the Arctic. GEM-MACH (with the snowpack bromine source mechanism) was able to simulate most of the observed springtime ozone depletion events (ODEs) at the coastal and buoy sites well, while DEHM (with the blowing-snow bromine source mechanism) simulated much fewer ODEs. The present study demonstrates that the springtime O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> depletion process plays a central role in driving the surface O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> seasonal cycle in central Arctic, and that the bromine-mediated ODEs, while occurring most notably within the lowest few hundred metres of air above the Arctic Ocean, can induce a 5 %–7 % of loss in the total pan-Arctic tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> burden during springtime. The model simulations also showed an overall enhancement in the pan-Arctic O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> concentration due to northern boreal wildfire emissions in summer 2015; the enhancement is more significant at higher altitudes. Higher O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> excess ratios (<span class="inline-formula">Δ</span>O<span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M13" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi/><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></msub><mo>/</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="6d8b7ce649b9583697286396b19d37dc"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-25-8355-2025-ie00001.svg" width="21pt" height="14pt" src="acp-25-8355-2025-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span>CO) found aloft compared to near the surface indicate greater photochemical O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> production efficiency at higher altitudes in fire-impacted air masses. The model simulations further indicated an enhancement in NO<span class="inline-formula"><sub><i>y</i></sub></span> in the Arctic due to wildfires; a large portion of NO<span class="inline-formula"><sub><i>y</i></sub></span> produced from the wildfire emissions is found in the form of PAN that is transported to the Arctic, particularly at higher altitudes, potentially contributing to O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> production there.</p>
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spelling doaj-art-165a8d7c3aa84ffa8a0c3d0744cbaec62025-08-20T03:47:16ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242025-08-01258355840510.5194/acp-25-8355-2025Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variationsW. Gong0S. R. Beagley1K. Toyota2H. Skov3J. H. Christensen4A. Lupu5D. Pendlebury6J. Zhang7U. Im8Y. Kanaya9A. Saiz-Lopez10R. Sommariva11R. Sommariva12P. Effertz13P. Effertz14J. W. Halfacre15N. Jepsen16R. Kivi17T. K. Koenig18K. Müller19C. Nordstrøm20I. Petropavlovskikh21I. Petropavlovskikh22P. B. Shepson23W. R. Simpson24S. Solberg25R. M. Staebler26D. W. Tarasick27R. Van Malderen28M. Vestenius29Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaDepartment of Environmental Science, iClimate, Aarhus University, Roskilde, 4000, DenmarkDepartment of Environmental Science, iClimate, Aarhus University, Roskilde, 4000, DenmarkAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaDepartment of Environmental Science, iClimate, Aarhus University, Roskilde, 4000, DenmarkResearch Institute for Global Change (RIGC), Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokohama 2360001, JapanDepartment of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate, Institute of Physical Chemistry Blas Cabrera, CSIC, Madrid, 28006, SpainSchool of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UKSchool of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester, UKCooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USANational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Global Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305, USAWolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UKResearch and Development, Danish Meteorological Institute, 2100 Copenhagen, DenmarkSpace and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Tähteläntie 62, 99600 Sodankylä, FinlandDivision of Environment and Sustainability, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 999077, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaAlfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473 Potsdam, GermanyDepartment of Environmental Science, iClimate, Aarhus University, Roskilde, 4000, DenmarkCooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USANational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Global Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305, USAThe School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USADepartment of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6160, USANorwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, NorwayAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaAir Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, M3H 5T4, CanadaRoyal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI), Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, Brussels, BelgiumAtmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Expert services, 00101 Helsinki, Finland<p>Previous assessments on modelling Arctic tropospheric ozone (O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span>) have shown that most atmospheric models continue to experience difficulties in simulating tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> in the Arctic, particularly in capturing the seasonal variations at coastal sites, primarily attributed to the lack of representation of surface bromine<span id="page8356"/> chemistry in the Arctic. In this study, two independent chemical transport models (CTMs), DEHM (Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model) and GEM-MACH (Global Environmental Multi-scale – Modelling Air quality and Chemistry), were used to simulate Arctic lower-tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> for the year 2015 at considerably higher horizontal resolutions (25 and 15 km, respectively) than the large-scale models in the previous assessments. Both models include bromine chemistry but with different mechanistic representations of bromine sources from snow- and ice-covered polar regions: a blowing-snow bromine source mechanism in DEHM and a snowpack bromine source mechanism in GEM-MACH. Model results were compared with a suite of observations in the Arctic, including hourly observations from surface sites and mobile platforms (buoys and ships) and ozonesonde profiles, to evaluate models' ability to simulate Arctic lower-tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span>, particularly in capturing the seasonal variations and the key processes controlling these variations.</p> <p>Both models are found to behave quite similarly outside the spring period and are able to capture the observed overall surface O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> seasonal cycle and synoptic-scale variabilities, as well as the O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> vertical profiles in the Arctic. GEM-MACH (with the snowpack bromine source mechanism) was able to simulate most of the observed springtime ozone depletion events (ODEs) at the coastal and buoy sites well, while DEHM (with the blowing-snow bromine source mechanism) simulated much fewer ODEs. The present study demonstrates that the springtime O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> depletion process plays a central role in driving the surface O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> seasonal cycle in central Arctic, and that the bromine-mediated ODEs, while occurring most notably within the lowest few hundred metres of air above the Arctic Ocean, can induce a 5 %–7 % of loss in the total pan-Arctic tropospheric O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> burden during springtime. The model simulations also showed an overall enhancement in the pan-Arctic O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> concentration due to northern boreal wildfire emissions in summer 2015; the enhancement is more significant at higher altitudes. Higher O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> excess ratios (<span class="inline-formula">Δ</span>O<span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M13" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><msub><mi/><mn mathvariant="normal">3</mn></msub><mo>/</mo><mi mathvariant="normal">Δ</mi></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="21pt" height="14pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="6d8b7ce649b9583697286396b19d37dc"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-25-8355-2025-ie00001.svg" width="21pt" height="14pt" src="acp-25-8355-2025-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span>CO) found aloft compared to near the surface indicate greater photochemical O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> production efficiency at higher altitudes in fire-impacted air masses. The model simulations further indicated an enhancement in NO<span class="inline-formula"><sub><i>y</i></sub></span> in the Arctic due to wildfires; a large portion of NO<span class="inline-formula"><sub><i>y</i></sub></span> produced from the wildfire emissions is found in the form of PAN that is transported to the Arctic, particularly at higher altitudes, potentially contributing to O<span class="inline-formula"><sub>3</sub></span> production there.</p>https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/8355/2025/acp-25-8355-2025.pdf
spellingShingle W. Gong
S. R. Beagley
K. Toyota
H. Skov
J. H. Christensen
A. Lupu
D. Pendlebury
J. Zhang
U. Im
Y. Kanaya
A. Saiz-Lopez
R. Sommariva
R. Sommariva
P. Effertz
P. Effertz
J. W. Halfacre
N. Jepsen
R. Kivi
T. K. Koenig
K. Müller
C. Nordstrøm
I. Petropavlovskikh
I. Petropavlovskikh
P. B. Shepson
W. R. Simpson
S. Solberg
R. M. Staebler
D. W. Tarasick
R. Van Malderen
M. Vestenius
Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
title Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
title_full Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
title_fullStr Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
title_full_unstemmed Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
title_short Modelling Arctic lower-tropospheric ozone: processes controlling seasonal variations
title_sort modelling arctic lower tropospheric ozone processes controlling seasonal variations
url https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/8355/2025/acp-25-8355-2025.pdf
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