Dataset Information

Aircraft observations since the 1990s reveal increases of tropospheric ozone at multiple locations across the Northern Hemisphere.

ABSTRACT: Tropospheric ozone is an important greenhouse gas, is detrimental to human health and crop and ecosystem productivity, and controls the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere. Because of its high spatial and temporal variability and limited observations, quantifying net tropospheric ozone changes across the Northern Hemisphere on time scales of two decades had not been possible. Here, we show, using newly available observations from an extensive commercial aircraft monitoring network, that tropospheric ozone has increased above 11 regions of the Northern Hemisphere since the mid-1990s, consistent with the OMI/MLS satellite product. The net result of shifting anthropogenic ozone precursor emissions has led to an increase of ozone and its radiative forcing above all 11 study regions of the Northern Hemisphere, despite NO x emission reductions at midlatitudes.

SUBMITTER: Gaudel A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7442356 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Aircraft observations since the 1990s reveal increases of tropospheric ozone at multiple locations across the Northern Hemisphere.

Gaudel Audrey A Cooper Owen R OR Chang Kai-Lan KL Bourgeois Ilann I Ziemke Jerry R JR Strode Sarah A SA Oman Luke D LD Sellitto Pasquale P Nédélec Philippe P Blot Romain R Thouret Valérie V Granier Claire C

Science advances 20200821 34

Tropospheric ozone is an important greenhouse gas, is detrimental to human health and crop and ecosystem productivity, and controls the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere. Because of its high spatial and temporal variability and limited observations, quantifying net tropospheric ozone changes across the Northern Hemisphere on time scales of two decades had not been possible. Here, we show, using newly available observations from an extensive commercial aircraft monitoring network, that tropos ...[more]

PMID: 32937364

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Project description:Assessment of spatial and temporal variation in the impacts of ozone on human health, vegetation, and climate requires appropriate metrics. A key component of the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is the consistent calculation of these metrics at thousands of monitoring sites globally. Investigating temporal trends in these metrics required that the same statistical methods be applied across these ozone monitoring sites. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall test (for significant trends) and the Theil-Sen estimator (for estimating the magnitude of trend) were selected to provide robust methods across all sites. This paper provides the scientific underpinnings necessary to better understand the implications of and rationale for selecting a specific TOAR metric for assessing spatial and temporal variation in ozone for a particular impact. The rationale and underlying research evidence that influence the derivation of specific metrics are given. The form of 25 metrics (4 for model-measurement comparison, 5 for characterization of ozone in the free troposphere, 11 for human health impacts, and 5 for vegetation impacts) are described. Finally, this study categorizes health and vegetation exposure metrics based on the extent to which they are determined only by the highest hourly ozone levels, or by a wider range of values. The magnitude of the metrics is influenced by both the distribution of hourly average ozone concentrations at a site location, and the extent to which a particular metric is determined by relatively low, moderate, and high hourly ozone levels. Hence, for the same ozone time series, changes in the distribution of ozone concentrations can result in different changes in the magnitude and direction of trends for different metrics. Thus, dissimilar conclusions about the effect of changes in the drivers of ozone variability (e.g., precursor emissions) on health and vegetation exposure can result from the selection of different metrics.

Dataset Information

Aircraft observations since the 1990s reveal increases of tropospheric ozone at multiple locations across the Northern Hemisphere.

Publications

Aircraft observations since the 1990s reveal increases of tropospheric ozone at multiple locations across the Northern Hemisphere.

Similar Datasets

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