Chapter 51
Lightning NO X Distribution and Its
Impact on Ozone Over the Contiguous
United States During 2011
Daiwen Kang, Rohit Mathur, Limei Ran, George Pouliot, David Wong,
Kristen Foley, Wyat Appel and Shawn Roselle
Nitrogen oxides (NO X : NO + NO 2 ) play a critical role in controlling atmospheric
chemistry, especially for the tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) formation and distribution.
As one of the major natural NO X sources, lightning NO X (LNO X ) production is
estimated to be in the range of 10–15% of the total global NO X emissions budget
[6]. In addition, lightning activity and the tropospheric distribution of LNO X exhibit
strong spatial and temporal variations [5]. To estimate LNO X impact on air quality
accurately, the spatial and temporal distributions of LNO X need to be quantified using
robust LNO X production and distribution schemes in air quality models.
Beginning with the version (v5.2) of the Community Multiscale Air Quality
(CMAQ, Appel et al. [2]) model, A LNO X production scheme is implemented based
on hourly gridded lightning flashes from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) to estimate gridded hourly total LNO X across the contiguous US for
retrospective model applications. After the column total LNO X is calculated, it is
distributed vertically through the model layers based on the double-peak algorithm
described in Allen et al. [1]. In this study, the relative contributions of LNO X to
the total NO X emissions budget in time and space for April to September 2011
over the contiguous United States are quantified using the 2011 National Emissions
Inventory (NEI) for anthropogenic NO X emissions and soil NO emissions estimated
by CMAQ inline biogenic emission model [3, 4]. Model simulations with LNO X
(NLDN) and without LNO X (Base) were performed. The impact of LNO X on O 3
air quality at the surface were assessed by region and month against gas phase measurements from the EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS; https://www.epa.gov/aqs) for
hourly gas species, accounting for spatial differences in the relative importance of
LNO X relative to other sources of NO X emissions. Vertical profiles were also examined against ozone-sonde data measured from the Deriving Information on Surface
D. Kang (B) · R. Mathur · L. Ran · G. Pouliot · D. Wong · K. Foley · W. Appel · S. Roselle
National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research
Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27711, USA
e-mail: kang.daiwen@epa.gov
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_51
323
Lightning NO X Distribution and Its
Impact on Ozone Over the Contiguous
United States During 2011
Daiwen Kang, Rohit Mathur, Limei Ran, George Pouliot, David Wong,
Kristen Foley, Wyat Appel and Shawn Roselle
Nitrogen oxides (NO X : NO + NO 2 ) play a critical role in controlling atmospheric
chemistry, especially for the tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) formation and distribution.
As one of the major natural NO X sources, lightning NO X (LNO X ) production is
estimated to be in the range of 10–15% of the total global NO X emissions budget
[6]. In addition, lightning activity and the tropospheric distribution of LNO X exhibit
strong spatial and temporal variations [5]. To estimate LNO X impact on air quality
accurately, the spatial and temporal distributions of LNO X need to be quantified using
robust LNO X production and distribution schemes in air quality models.
Beginning with the version (v5.2) of the Community Multiscale Air Quality
(CMAQ, Appel et al. [2]) model, A LNO X production scheme is implemented based
on hourly gridded lightning flashes from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) to estimate gridded hourly total LNO X across the contiguous US for
retrospective model applications. After the column total LNO X is calculated, it is
distributed vertically through the model layers based on the double-peak algorithm
described in Allen et al. [1]. In this study, the relative contributions of LNO X to
the total NO X emissions budget in time and space for April to September 2011
over the contiguous United States are quantified using the 2011 National Emissions
Inventory (NEI) for anthropogenic NO X emissions and soil NO emissions estimated
by CMAQ inline biogenic emission model [3, 4]. Model simulations with LNO X
(NLDN) and without LNO X (Base) were performed. The impact of LNO X on O 3
air quality at the surface were assessed by region and month against gas phase measurements from the EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS; https://www.epa.gov/aqs) for
hourly gas species, accounting for spatial differences in the relative importance of
LNO X relative to other sources of NO X emissions. Vertical profiles were also examined against ozone-sonde data measured from the Deriving Information on Surface
D. Kang (B) · R. Mathur · L. Ran · G. Pouliot · D. Wong · K. Foley · W. Appel · S. Roselle
National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research
Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27711, USA
e-mail: kang.daiwen@epa.gov
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_51
323