Drivers for spatial, temporal and long-term trends in atmospheric ammonia and ammonium in the UK

Tang, Y. S.; Braban, Christine F.; Dragosits, Ulrike; Dore, Anthony J.; Simmons, Ivan; Dijk, Netty van; Poskitt, Janet; Pereira, Gloria Dos Santos; Keenan, Patrick; Conolly, Christopher; Vincent, Keith; Smith, R. I.; Heal, Mathew R.; Sutton, Mark A.

doi:10.5194/acp-18-705-2018

Cited by 56 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…The lifetime of NH 3 in the atmosphere ranges from 1–5 days since it can react with acid gases or be dissolved in liquid water (Tang et al, ; Wang et al, ). However, NH 3 will convert to NH 4 + by reacting with gaseous sulfuric or nitric acid during transport, and the resulting NH 4 + particles can have atmospheric lifetimes of the order of 1–15 days (Aneja et al, ; Kruit et al, ; Vieno et al, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, NH 3 will convert to NH 4 + by reacting with gaseous sulfuric or nitric acid during transport, and the resulting NH 4 + particles can have atmospheric lifetimes of the order of 1–15 days (Aneja et al, ; Kruit et al, ; Vieno et al, ). In addition, NH 3 can remain longer in the atmosphere when the particulate form changes from (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 to NH 4 NO 3 , since NH 4 NO 3 is in equilibrium with gaseous nitric acid and ammonia and can release NH 3 at higher temperatures (Tang et al, ). Therefore, the back trajectories were calculated for 72 hr (3 days) with a starting height of 500 m above ground level.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, long‐range transported NH 3 can reduce the biodiversity of remote ecosystems (Bittman et al, ; Ellis et al, ). Deposited NH 3 and ammonium (NH 4 + ) formed by reacting with acid gases in the atmosphere can cause aquatic eutrophication (Tang et al, ). NH 3 can also affect the climate since it is a strong greenhouse gas (Wang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, NH 3 can significantly affect ambient air quality as the key precursor of the formation of secondary sulfate and nitrate particles (major components of PM 2.5 ; Liu et al, ; Seinfeld & Pandis, ; Sun et al, ). In addition, the importance of NH 3 in terms of its global impacts has increased because of the substantial reductions of SO 2 and NO x emissions (Emami et al, ; Squizzato et al, ) while there have been only limited reductions of NH 3 emissions (Tang et al, ; Xu et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there have been efforts to reduce agricultural NH 3 emissions at local to international scales (Bittman et al, ; Tang et al, ; Wang et al, ), Bittman et al () suggested that atmospheric NH 3 concentrations are not declining in Canada and the United States because the reductions in acid gas concentrations tend to increase its residence time and resulting NH 3 concentrations (Meng et al, ; Pinder et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ambient Ammonia Concentrations Across New York State

Zhou

Holsen

et al. 2019

JGR Atmospheres

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Ammonia (NH3) was monitored at four locations (two urban and two rural) across New York State from April 2016 to October 2017 using active and passive systems. The two rural sites were Pinnacle State Park (PIN) and the Village of Potsdam, and the two urban sites were the City of Rochester and Queens College in New York City. Active and passive concentrations were well correlated across all sites (r2 = 0.866), but the active systems measured 6.2% higher NH3 concentrations. The mean (±SD) NH3 concentrations measured using active systems in Queens College, City of Rochester, Village of Potsdam, and PIN were 3.22 ± 2.23, 2.84 ± 1.91, 1.29 ± 1.12, and 0.82 ± 0.64 ppb, respectively. Ambient NH3 concentrations varied with diel vehicular and seasonal agricultural activities. NH3 concentrations at the urban sites had lower seasonal variability than the rural sites. NH3 concentrations were generally related to regional and in‐state NH3 emissions although less regional influence was observed at the urban sites. Local NH3 source directions were identified using conditional bivariate probability function. The urban sites were affected by local NH3 sources such as vehicular emissions and urban population centers. Likely distant NH3 source locations affecting the four sites were identified using simplified quantitative transport bias analysis model. Rural sites were more highly affected by transported NH3. Midwestern and Atlantic were major NH3 source areas. NH3 emissions from the south of PIN were probably due to the use of diesel trucks and other diesel engines in the hydraulic fracturing industry in Pennsylvania near the New York State border.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ambient Ammonia Concentrations Across New York State

Zhou

Holsen

et al. 2019

JGR Atmospheres

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4D-Var inversion of European NH3 emissions using CrIS NH3 measurements and GEOS-Chem adjoint with bi-directional and uni-directional flux schemes

Cao

Henze

Zhu

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We conduct the first 4D-Var inversion of NH 3 accounting for NH 3 bi-directional flux, using CrIS satellite NH 3 observations over Europe in 2016. We find posterior NH 3 emissions peak more in springtime than prior emissions at continental to national scales, and annually they are generally smaller than the prior emissions over central Europe, but larger over most of the rest of Europe. Annual posterior anthropogenic NH 3 emissions for 25 European Union members (EU25) are 25% higher than the prior emissions and very close (<2% difference) to other inventories. Our posterior annual anthropogenic emissions for EU25, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are generally 10%-20% smaller than when treating NH 3 fluxes as uni-directional emissions, while the monthly regional difference can be up to 34% (Switzerland in July). Compared to monthly mean in-situ observations, our posterior NH 3 emissions from both schemes generally improve the magnitude and seasonality of simulated surface NH 3 and bulk NH x wet deposition throughout most of Europe, whereas evaluation against hourly measurements at a background site shows the bi-directional scheme better captures observed diurnal variability of surface NH 3 . This contrast highlights the need for accurately simulating diurnal variability of NH 3 in assimilation of sun-synchronous observations and also the potential value of future geostationary satellite observations. Overall, our top-down ammonia emissions can help to examine the effectiveness of air pollution control policies to facilitate future air pollution management, as well as helping us understand the uncertainty in top-down NH 3 emissions estimates associated with treatment of NH 3 surface exchange.Plain Language Summary Atmospheric ammonia contributes to air pollutants and excessive deposition of reactive nitrogen that is detrimental to sensitive ecosystems. Ammonia is emitted mainly by agricultural livestock and fertilizer use. While surface measurements of NH 3 are sparse, satellite observations can provide near daily global coverage. Here we calculate monthly NH 3 emissions over Europe, the only region adopting NH 3 control policies, using an air quality model coupled with a process-based bi-directional NH 3 flux scheme and NH 3 measurements observed by the CrIS satellite instrument. Our CrIS-derived annual regional total anthropogenic NH 3 emissions are close (<2% difference) to statistic-based bottom-up estimates and are 10%-20% lower than when treating NH 3 exchange between the atmosphere and biosphere as one-way CAO ET AL.

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