Berlin 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 11: Postersession

UP 11.7: Poster

Mittwoch, 19. März 2014, 17:00–18:30, MAG Poster

Spatial distributions of NO₂ in emission plumes observed by imaging DOAS from aircraft — •Anja Schönhardt¹, Andreas Meier¹, Andreas Richter¹, Thomas Ruhtz², Carsten Lindemann², and John P. Burrows¹ — ¹Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Bremen — ²Institut fuer Weltraumwissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin

Nitrogen dioxide, NO₂, is an important reactive trace gas in the troposphere leading to ozone formation as well as acidification and eutrophication of ecosystems. NO₂ is produced from nitric oxide, NO, mainly emitted by combustion processes. The IUP Bremen AirMAP (Airborne imaging DOAS instrument for Measurements of Atmospheric Pollution) has been used for NO₂ observations over point sources and polluted areas during aircraft campaigns in 2011 and 2013. The instrument yields NO₂ column densities at fine horizontal resolution (below 100m, down to 30m), and at good spatial coverage. Within only a few minutes, NO₂ maps covering areas of several km² are obtained. Aircraft observations of spatial NO₂ distributions are presented, and the obtained maps reveal large spatial variability of NO₂, which is made possible by the AirMAP imaging capabilities. In particular, strongly non-uniform distributions of NO₂ within emission plumes downwind of point sources are discovered. The observations have implications for experimental emission estimates, the deduced relevance of emission sources and downwind chemistry. In this study, the NO₂ amounts and their particularly non-uniform distributions, resulting from chemical transformation and atmospheric dynamics, are investigated.