Satellite isoprene retrievals constrain emissions and atmospheric oxidation

Kelley C. Wells, Dylan B. Millet (), Vivienne H. Payne, M. Julian Deventer, Kelvin H. Bates, Joost A. Gouw, Martin Graus, Carsten Warneke, Armin Wisthaler and Jose D. Fuentes
Additional contact information
Kelley C. Wells: University of Minnesota
Dylan B. Millet: University of Minnesota
Vivienne H. Payne: California Institute of Technology
M. Julian Deventer: University of Minnesota
Kelvin H. Bates: Harvard University
Joost A. Gouw: University of Colorado
Martin Graus: University of Innsbruck
Carsten Warneke: University of Colorado
Armin Wisthaler: University of Innsbruck
Jose D. Fuentes: The Pennsylvania State University

Nature, 2020, vol. 585, issue 7824, 225-233

Abstract: Abstract Isoprene is the dominant non-methane organic compound emitted to the atmosphere1–3. It drives ozone and aerosol production, modulates atmospheric oxidation and interacts with the global nitrogen cycle4–8. Isoprene emissions are highly uncertain1,9, as is the nonlinear chemistry coupling isoprene and the hydroxyl radical, OH—its primary sink10–13. Here we present global isoprene measurements taken from space using the Cross-track Infrared Sounder. Together with observations of formaldehyde, an isoprene oxidation product, these measurements provide constraints on isoprene emissions and atmospheric oxidation. We find that the isoprene–formaldehyde relationships measured from space are broadly consistent with the current understanding of isoprene–OH chemistry, with no indication of missing OH recycling at low nitrogen oxide concentrations. We analyse these datasets over four global isoprene hotspots in relation to model predictions, and present a quantification of isoprene emissions based directly on satellite measurements of isoprene itself. A major discrepancy emerges over Amazonia, where current underestimates of natural nitrogen oxide emissions bias modelled OH and hence isoprene. Over southern Africa, we find that a prominent isoprene hotspot is missing from bottom-up predictions. A multi-year analysis sheds light on interannual isoprene variability, and suggests the influence of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2664-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:585:y:2020:i:7824:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2664-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2664-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().