Evaluating Drought Responses of Surface Ozone Precursor Proxies: Variations With Land Cover Type, Precipitation, and Temperature.

ABSTRACT: Prior work suggests drought exacerbates US air quality by increasing surface ozone concentrations. We analyze 2005-2015 tropospheric column concentrations of two trace gases that serve as proxies for surface ozone precursors retrieved from the OMI/Aura satellite: Nitrogen dioxide (ΩNO_2; NO_x proxy) and formaldehyde (ΩHCHO; VOC proxy). We find 3.5% and 7.7% summer drought enhancements (classified by SPEI) for ΩNO₂ and ΩHCHO, respectively, corroborating signals previously extracted from ground-level observations. When we subset by land cover type, the strongest ΩHCHO drought enhancement (10%) occurs in the woody savannas of the Southeast US. By isolating the influences of precipitation and temperature, we infer that enhanced biogenic VOC emissions in this regi

SUBMITTER: Naimark JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285578 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature