Significant ground-level ozone attributed to lightning-induced nitrogen oxides during summertime over the Mountain West States.

ABSTRACT: Using lightning flash data from the National Lightning Detection Network with an updated lightning nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emission estimation algorithm in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, we estimate the hourly variations in lightning NO_x emissions for the summer of 2011 and simulate its impact on distributions of tropospheric ozone (O₃) across the continental United States. We find that typical summer-time lightning activity across the U.S. Mountain West States (MWS) injects NO_x emissions comparable to those from anthropogenic sources into the troposphere over the region. Comparison of two model simulation cases with and without lightning NO_x emissions show that significant amount of ground-level O₃ in the

SUBMITTER: Kang D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7075249 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature