The role of anthropogenic emissions of NO x on tropospheric ozone over the North Atlantic Ocean: A three-dimensional, global model study

Abstract

A three-dimensional, global tropospheric model is used to simulate the concentration of ozone over the North Atlantic Ocean over an annual cycle. Two scenarios, a baseline and one in which North American fossil fuel NO x emissions are reduced 50% are simulated. The largest decreases in O 3 are found in the summer months closest to the east coast of North America, presumably because of strong photochemical production and transport from the southwest due to the Bermuda High. Ozone decreases are also predicted for other North Atlantic Ocean sites and occur throughout the year, but tend to be smaller than those off North America. The total tropospheric mass of O 3 over a region from (2.2S, 82.5W) to (68.8N, 0) decreases by 1.8 Tg O 3 from 41.3 to 39.5 Tg O 3 when North American NO x fossil fuel emissions are reduced, or roughly 4.4%. Given recent estimates of the export of North American O 3 to the global atmosphere, the 50% fossil fuel NO x reduction corresponds to a 30% reduction in the total mass of tropospheric O 3 exported from North America to the North Atlantic Ocean. Nonlinearities may be due to the fact that ozone production potential per unit NO x increases as NO x concentrations decrease.