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The Sulfur Transport and dEposition Model (STEM) is applied to the analysis of observations obtained during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-Phase B (INTEX-B), conducted over the eastern Pacific Ocean during spring 2006. Predicted trace gas and aerosol distributions over the Pacific are presented and discussed in terms of transport and source region contributions. Trace species distributions show a strong west (high) to east (low) gradient, with the bulk of the pollutant transport over the central Pacific occurring between similar to 20 degrees N and 50 degrees N in the 2-6 km altitude range. These distributions are evaluated in the eastern Pacific by comparison with the NASA DC-8 and NSF/NCAR C-130 airborne measurements along with observations from the Mt. Bachelor (MBO) surface site. Thirty different meteorological, trace gas and aerosol parameters are compared. In general the meteorological fields are better predicted than gas phase species, which in turn are better predicted than aerosol quantities. PAN is found to be significantly overpredicted over the eastern Pacific, which is attributed to uncertainties in the chemical reaction mechanisms used in current atmospheric chemistry models in general and to the specifically high PAN production in the SAPRC-99 mechanism used in the regional model. A systematic underprediction of the elevated sulfate layer in the eastern Pacific observed by the C-130 is another issue that is identified and discussed. Results from source region tagged CO simulations are used to estimate how the different source regions around the Pacific contribute to the trace gas species distributions. During this period the largest contributions were from China and from fires in South/Southeast and North Asia. For the C-130 flights, which operated off the coast of the Northwest US, the regional CO contributions range as follows: China (35%), South/Southeast Asia fires (35%), North America anthropogenic (20%), and North Asia fires (10%). The transport of pollution into the western US is studied at MBO and a variety of events with elevated Asian dust, and periods with contributions from China and fires from both Asia and North America are discussed. The role of heterogeneous chemistry on the composition over the eastern Pacific is also studied. The impacts of heterogeneous reactions at specific times can be significant, increasing sulfate and nitrate aerosol production and reducing gas phase nitric acid levels appreciably (similar to 50%).

The measurement of OH reactivity, the inverse of the OH lifetime, provides a powerful tool to investigate atmospheric photochemistry. A new airborne OH reactivity instrument was designed and deployed for the first time on the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the second phase of Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-B (INTEX-B) campaign, which was focused on the Asian pollution outflow over Pacific Ocean and was based in Hawaii and Alaska. The OH reactivity was measured by adding OH, generated by photolyzing water vapor with 185 nm UV light in a moveable wand, to the flow of ambient air in a flow tube and measuring the OH signal with laser induced fluorescence. As the wand was pulled back away from the OH detector, the OH signal decay was recorded; the slope of -Delta 1n(signal)/Delta time was the OH reactivity. The overall absolute uncertainty at the 2 sigma confidence levels is about 1 s(-1) at low altitudes (for decay about 6 s(-1)), and 0.7 s(-1) at high altitudes (for decay about 2 s(-1)). From the median vertical profile obtained in the second phase of INTEX-B, the measured OH reactivity (4.0 +/- 1.0 s(-1)) is higher than the OH reactivity calculated from assuming that OH was in steady state (3.3 +/- 0.8 s(-1)), and even higher than the OH reactivity that was calculated from the total measurements of all OH reactants (1.6 +/- 0.4 s(-1)). Model calculations show that the missing OH reactivity is consistent with the over-predicted OH and under-predicted HCHO in the boundary layer and lower troposphere. The over-predicted OH and under-predicted HCHO suggest that the missing OH sinks are most likely related to some highly reactive VOCs that have HCHO as an oxidation product.

The first direct in situ measurements of HO2NO2 in the upper troposphere were performed from the NASA DC-8 during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment–North America 2004 with a chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS). These measurements provide an independent diagnostic of HOx chemistry in the free troposphere and complement direct observations of HOx, because of the dual dependency of HO2NO2 on HOx and NOx. On average, the highest HO2NO2 mixing ratio of 76 pptv (median = 77 pptv,σ = 39 pptv) was observed at altitudes of 8–9 km. Simple steady state calculations of HO2NO2, constrained by measurements of HOx, NOx, and J values, are in good agreement (slope = 0.90, R2 = 0.60, and z = 5.5–7.5 km) with measurements in the midtroposphere where thermal decomposition is the major loss process. Above 8 km the calculated steady state HO2NO2 is in poor agreement with observed values (R2 = 0.20) and is typically larger by a factor of 2.4. Conversely, steady state calculations using model-derived HOx show reasonable agreement with the observed HO2NO2 in both the midtroposphere (slope = 0.96, intercept = 7.0, and R2 = 0.63) and upper troposphere (slope = 0.80, intercept = 32.2, and R2 = 0.58). These results indicate that observed HO2 and HO2NO2 are in poor agreement in the upper troposphere but that HO2NO2 levels are consistent with current photochemical theory.

The chemistry of peroxynitric acid (HO2NO2) and methyl peroxynitrate (CH3O2NO2) is predicted to be particularly important in the upper troposphere where temperatures are frequently low enough that these compounds do not rapidly decompose. At temperatures below 240 K, we calculate that about 20% of NOy in the mid- and high-latitude upper troposphere is HO2NO2. Under these conditions, the reaction of OH with HO2NO2 is estimated to account for as much as one third of the permanent loss of hydrogen radicals. During the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) campaign, we used thermal dissociation laser-induced fluorescence (TD-LIF) to measure the sum of peroxynitrates (SigmaPNsequivalent toHO(2)NO(2)+CH3O2NO2+PAN+PPN+...) aboard the NCAR C-130 research aircraft. We infer the sum of HO2NO2 and CH3O2NO2 as the difference between SigmaPN measurements and gas chromatographic measurements of the two major peroxy acyl nitrates, peroxy acetyl nitrate (PAN) and peroxy propionyl nitrate (PPN). Comparison with NOy and other nitrogen oxide measurements confirms the importance of HO2NO2 and CH3O2NO2 to the reactive nitrogen budget and shows that current thinking about the chemistry of these species is approximately correct. During the spring high latitude conditions sampled during the TOPSE experiment, the model predictions of the contribution of (HO2NO2+CH3O2NO2) to NOy are highly temperature dependent: on average 30% of NOy at 230 K, 15% of NOy at 240 K, and

The equilibrium constant for N2 O5 ⇄NO2 +NO3 [reaction (1)], has been determined through direct concentration measurements of N2 O5, NO2, and NO3 in a temperature controlled long path cell, using absorption spectroscopy in the infrared and visible regions from 243 to 397 K. The results give K1C =1.30×1026 exp(-21 490/RT) molecules cm-3 with an estimated overall uncertainty of 30% at the 95% confidence level. This results in an equilibrium constant near room temperature approximately one-half that of previously accepted values. Using the temperature dependence of the equilibrium constant and new data for the enthalpy of formation of gaseous N2 O5 yields an enthalpy of formation for NO3 of 15.39±0.72 kcal mol-1. In additional experiments the temperature dependent first order decay rates of N2 O5 were determined from which a value for the product of the equilibrium constant (K1C ) and the rate constant for reaction (2): NO2 +NO3 →NO+NO2 +O2 was obtained for temperatures from 298 to 396 K: K1 k2 =1.23×1013 exp(-24 300/RT) s.-1 When this is combined with the equilibrium constant of the present study the following expression is obtained for k2 : 9.5×10-14 exp(-2810/RT) cm3 molecule-1 s.-1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]