Improvement and evaluation of the parameterisation of nitrogen oxide production by lightning

Meijer, E.; Velthoven, P. F. J. van; Brunner, Dominik; Huntrieser, H.; Kelder, H.

doi:10.1016/s1464-1917(01)00050-2

Cited by 76 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The convective precipitation-based linear parametrisation (CPLIN) of Meijer et al (2001) was qualitatively similar to CTH for all studied metrics. Two polynomial parametrisations based on convective precipitation (CPPOLY) and updraught mass flux (MFLUX) by Allen and Pickering (2002) were tested but found to perform poorly for the metrics and ERA-Interim meteorological input used here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…An alternative parametrisation based on convective precipitation which uses a linear relationship is proposed by Meijer et al (2001):…”

Section: Convective Precipitation (Linear) (Cplin)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous investigations have found several empirical relationships between lightning and convective variables including relationships based on cloud-top height (Price and Rind, 1992), updraught mass flux (Grewe et al, 2001;Allen and Pickering, 2002) and convective precipitation (Meijer et al, 2001;Allen and Pickering, 2002). The cloud-top height parametrisation is the most widely, almost universally, used but this is not considered ideal because it lacks a direct, physical link with the charging mechanism and because it has a fifth-power relationship for land which introduces large errors for any model bias in cloud-top height (Allen and Pickering, 2002;Tost et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

et al. 2014

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Abstract.Lightning is an important natural source of nitrogen oxide especially in the middle and upper troposphere. Hence, it is essential to represent lightning in chemistry transport and coupled chemistry-climate models. Using ERA-Interim meteorological reanalysis data we compare the lightning flash density distributions produced using several existing lightning parametrisations, as well as a new parametrisation developed on the basis of upward cloud ice flux at 440 hPa. The use of ice flux forms a link to the non-inductive charging mechanism of thunderstorms. Spatial and temporal distributions of lightning flash density are compared to tropical and subtropical observations for 2007-2011 from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. The well-used lightning flash parametrisation based on cloud-top height has large biases but the derived annual total flash density has a better spatial correlation with the LIS observations than other existing parametrisations. A comparison of flash density simulated by the different schemes shows that the cloud-top height parametrisation has many more instances of moderate flash densities and fewer low and high extremes compared to the other parametrisations. Other studies in the literature have shown that this feature of the cloud-top height parametrisation is in contrast to lightning observations over certain regions. Our new ice flux parametrisation shows a clear improvement over all the existing parametrisations with lower root mean square errors (RMSEs) and better spatial correlations with the observations for distributions of annual total, and seasonal and interannual variations. The greatest improvement with the new parametrisation is a more realistic representation of the zonal distribution with a better balance between tropical and subtropical lightning flash estimates. The new parametrisation is appropriate for testing in chemistry transport and chemistry-climate models that use a lightning parametrisation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…An alternative parametrisation based on convective precipitation which uses a linear relationship is proposed by Meijer et al (2001):…”

Section: Convective Precipitation (Linear) (Cplin)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

et al. 2014

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“…They are parameterised using estimates of the flash rate density, the flash energy release and the vertical emission profile. Estimates of the flash rate density are based on parameters of the convection scheme and calculated using convective precipitation as an input parameter (Meijer et al, 2001). Documentation of the technical implementation of C-IFS and more details about the model can be found in Flemming et al (2015).…”

Section: Atmosmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ENSO signal in atmospheric composition fields: emission-driven versus dynamically induced changes

et al. 2015

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Abstract. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) not only affects meteorological fields but also has a large impact on atmospheric composition. Atmospheric composition fields from the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis are used to identify the ENSO signal in tropospheric ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and smoke aerosols, concentrating on the months October to December. During El Niño years, all of these fields have increased concentrations over maritime South East Asia in October. The MACC Composition Integrated Forecasting System (C-IFS) model is used to quantify the relative magnitude of dynamically induced and emission-driven changes in the atmospheric composition fields. While changes in tropospheric ozone are a combination of dynamically induced and emission-driven changes, the changes in carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and smoke aerosols are almost entirely emission-driven in the MACC model. The ozone changes continue into December, i.e. after the end of the Indonesian fire season while changes in the other fields are confined to the fire season.

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“…For biogenic emissions we use the estimates provided by MEGANv2 (Guenther et al, 2006) except for CH 4 , which we take from the LPJ-WHyMe (LPJ-Wetland Hydrology and Methane) inventory (Spahni et al, 2011). For lightning NO x we use the parameterisation of Meijer et al (2001). The CH 4 distribution in the boundary layer is constrained by nudging to a seasonally dependant latitudinal gradient up to 500 hPa using the method given in Williams et al (2013).…”

Section: Definition Of the Emission Scenarios And Sensitivity Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the chemical production of methyl nitrate from the NO + CH<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub> reaction on the global distributions of alkyl nitrates, nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone: a global modelling study

et al. 2014

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Abstract. The formation, abundance and distribution of organic nitrates are relevant for determining the production efficiency and resident mixing ratios of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) on both regional and global scales. Here we investigate the effect of applying the recently measured direct chemical production of methyl nitrate (CH 3 ONO 2 ) during NO x recycling involving the methyl-peroxy radical on the global tropospheric distribution of CH 3 ONO 2 and the perturbations introduced towards tropospheric NO x and O 3 using the TM5 global chemistry transport model. By comparisons against numerous observations, we show that the global surface distribution of CH 3 ONO 2 can be largely explained by introducing the chemical production mechanism using a branching ratio of 0.3 %, when assuming a direct oceanic emission source of ∼ 0.15 Tg N yr −1 . On a global scale, the chemical production of CH 3 ONO 2 converts 1 Tg N yr −1 from nitrogen oxide for this branching ratio. The resident mixing ratios of CH 3 ONO 2 are found to be highly sensitive to the dry deposition velocity that is prescribed, where more than 50 % of the direct oceanic emission is lost near the source regions, thereby mitigating the subsequent effects due to long-range and convective transport out of the source region. For the higher alkyl nitrates (RONO 2 ) we find improvements in the simulated distribution near the surface in the tropics (10 • S-10 • N) when introducing direct oceanic emissions equal to ∼ 0.17 Tg N yr −1 . In terms of the vertical profile of CH 3 ONO 2 , there are persistent overestimations in the free troposphere and underestimations in the upper troposphere across a wide range of latitudes and longitudes when compared against data from measurement campaigns. This suggests either a missing transport pathway or source/sink term, although measurements show significant variability in resident mixing ratios at high altitudes at global scale. For the vertical profile of RONO 2 , TM5 performs better at tropical latitudes than at mid-latitudes, with similar features in the comparisons to those for CH 3 ONO 2 . Comparisons of CH 3 ONO 2 with a wide range of surface measurements shows that further constraints are necessary regarding the variability in the deposition terms for different land surfaces in order to improve on the comparisons presented here. For total reactive nitrogen (NO y ) ∼ 20 % originates from alkyl nitrates in the tropics and subtropics, where the introduction of both direct oceanic emissions and the chemical formation mechanism of CH 3 ONO 2 only makes a ∼ 5 % contribution to the total alkyl nitrate content in the upper troposphere when compared with aircraft observations. We find that the increases in tropospheric O 3 that occur due oxidation of CH 3 ONO 2 originating from direct oceanic emission is negated when accounting for the chemical formation of CH 3 ONO 2 , meaning that the impact of such oceanic emissions on atmospheric lifetimes becomes marginal when a branching ratio of 0.3 % is adopted.

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Improvement and evaluation of the parameterisation of nitrogen oxide production by lightning

Cited by 76 publications

References 15 publications

Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

The ENSO signal in atmospheric composition fields: emission-driven versus dynamically induced changes

The impact of the chemical production of methyl nitrate from the NO + CH<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub> reaction on the global distributions of alkyl nitrates, nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone: a global modelling study

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Improvement and evaluation of the parameterisation of nitrogen oxide production by lightning

Cited by 76 publications

References 15 publications

Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

Using cloud ice flux to parametrise large-scale lightning

The ENSO signal in atmospheric composition fields: emission-driven versus dynamically induced changes

The impact of the chemical production of methyl nitrate from the NO + CH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; reaction on the global distributions of alkyl nitrates, nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone: a global modelling study

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The impact of the chemical production of methyl nitrate from the NO + CH<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub> reaction on the global distributions of alkyl nitrates, nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone: a global modelling study