Temporal and spatial characteristics of lightning-produced nitrogen oxides in China

Abstract

Tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities (NO2VCDs) retrieved from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 satellite spectrometer, as well as lightning flashes measured by an Optical Transient Detector and Lightning Image Sensor from 1997 to 2013 are used to investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of lightning-produced nitrogen oxides (LNOX) under the recent period of rapid and locally-unbalanced economic development in China. Correlations between spatial distributions of lightning flashes and monthly mean tropospheric NO2VCDs were analyzed over this period. Mean production of LNOX per flash is 330mol[N]/flash which was estimated using the correlation between lightning flashes and monthly mean tropospheric NO2VCD for the Tibetan Plateau. Using this correlation, the spatial and temporal characteristics of the ratio of LNOX to tropospheric NOX in China were determined. Results show that the ratio of LNOX to the tropospheric NOX is small in eastern regions, having a developed industrial sector and dense population, but relatively large in western regions, with a developing industrial sector and sparser population. The annual mean value of LNOX contributing to tropospheric NOX is 7.5% in China, which is lower than global averages (10–20%). The difference in interannual variability of LNOX production contributing to tropospheric NOX in different areas is distinct, ranging from high to low values for the Tibetan Plateau, Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei regions, respectively. This indicates that lightning had a large influence on the column density of tropospheric NOX on the Tibetan Plateau, a region typically used as a sensitivity indicator for climate change. Lightning had less influence on atmospheric environments of the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei regions.