Understanding the contributions of anthropogenic and biogenic sources to CO enhancements and outflow observed over North America and the western Atlantic Ocean by TES and MOPITT

Abstract

We investigate the effects of anthropogenic and biogenic sources on tropospheric CO enhancements and outflow over North America and the Atlantic during July–August 2006, the 3rd warmest summer on record. The analysis is performed using the 3D Regional chEmical trAnsport Model (REAM), satellite data from TES on the Aura satellite, MOPITT on the Terra satellite and surface monitor data from the SEARCH network. The satellite measurements of CO provide insight into the location of regional CO enhancements along with the ability to resolve vertical features. Satellite and surface monitor data are used to compare with REAM, illustrating model's ability to reproduce observed CO concentrations. The REAM model used in this study features CO emissions reduced by 50% from the 1999 EPA NEI and biogenic VOC emissions scaled by EPA-observed isoprene concentrations (20% reduction). The REAM simulations show large variations in surface CO, lower tropospheric CO and column CO, which are also observed by the surface observations and satellite data. Over the US, during July–August 2006, the model estimates monthly CO production from anthropogenic sources (5.3 and 5.1 Tg CO) is generally larger than biogenic sources (4.3 and 3.5 Tg CO). However, the model shows that for very warm days, biogenic sources produce as much CO as anthropogenic sources, a result of increased biogenic production due to warmer temperatures. The satellite data show CO outflow occurs along the East Coast of the US and Canada in July and is more broadly distributed over the Atlantic in August. REAM results show the longitudinally exported CO enhancements from anthropogenic sources (3.3 and 3.9 Tg CO) are larger than biogenic sources (2.8 and 2.7 Tg CO) along the eastern boundary of REAM for July–August 2006. We show that when compared with the impacts of both sources on increasing tropospheric CO exports, the relative impacts in August are greater than in July because of preferable outflow transport.