Weekly cycle of NO<sub>2</sub> by GOME measurements: a signature of anthropogenic sources

Abstract

Abstract. Nitrogen oxides (NO+NO 2 =NO x and reservoir species) are important trace gases in the troposphere with impact on human health, atmospheric chemistry and climate. Besides natural sources (lightning, soil emissions) and biomass burning, fossil fuel combustion is estimated to be responsible for about 50% of the total production of NO x . Since human activity in industrialized countries largely follows a seven-day cycle, fossil fuel combustion is expected to be reduced during weekends. This "weekend effect" is well known from local, ground based measurements, but has never been analysed on a global scale before.The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on board the ESA-satellite ERS-2 allows measurements of NO 2 column densities. By estimating and subtracting the stratospheric column, and considering radiative transfer, vertical column densities (VCD) of tropospheric NO 2 can be determined (e.g. Leue et al., 2001). We demonstrate the statistical analysis of weekly cycles of tropospheric NO 2 VCDs for different regions of the world. In the cycles of the industrialized regions and cities in the US, Europe and Japan a clear Sunday minimum of tropospheric NO 2 VCD can be seen. Sunday NO 2 VCDs are about 25-50% lower than working day levels. Metropolitan areas with other religious and cultural backgrounds (Jerusalem, Mecca) show different weekly patterns corresponding to different days of rest. In China, no weekly pattern can be found.The presence of a weekly cycle in the measured tropospheric NO 2 VCD may help to identify the different anthropogenic source categories. Furthermore, we estimated the lifetime of tropospheric NO 2 by analysing the mean weekly cycle exemplarily over Germany, obtaining a value of about 6 h in summer and 18-24 h in winter.

NO<sub>2</sub> measurements in Hong Kong using LED based long path differential optical absorption spectroscopy

“…Our observation agrees with observations by Beirle et al (2003) and Wenig (2001) that no significant NO 2 weekly cycle can be found over Hong Kong from space. However, such a cycle can be observed in the LP-DOAS measurements as well as the EPD data during the morning rush hour (08:30 to 09:30 LT).…”

Assessing large-scale weekly cycles in meteorological variables: a review

“…However, the first study that observed pollution WCs from space focused on tropospheric NO 2 (Beirle et al, 2003). Satellite measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) aboard ERS-2 revealed a clear Sunday minimum with reduced NO 2 tropospheric columns compared to the working-day levels over the US, Europe and Japan.…”

Evaluation of OMI operational standard NO<sub>2</sub> column retrievals using in situ and surface-based NO<sub>2</sub> observations

“…NO 2 observations from satellite offer a globally consistent data set, albeit at coarse resolutions of 10 s to 100 s of kilometers, enabling a wide range of applications including many not feasible from in situ observations. Several studies have used satellite observations of NO 2 to evaluate chemical transport models (Martin et al, 2002;van Noije et al, 2006;Lamsal et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2009;Herron-Thorpe et al, 2010;Huijnen et al, 2010), examine spatial and temporal patterns of NO x emissions (Beirle et al, 2003;Richter et al, 2005;Kim et al, 2006;van der A et al, 2006;Zhang et al, 2007;Boersma et al, 2008a;Lu and Streets, 2012;Wang et al, 2012;Hilboll et al, 2013;Russell et al, 2010Russell et al, , 2012Duncan et al, 2013), examine NO x sources (Jaeglé et al, 2005;van der A et al, 2008;Bucsela et al, 2010;de Wildt et al, 2012;Lin, 2012;Ghude et al, 2010Ghude et al, , 2013aMebust et al, 2011;Mebust and Cohen, 2013), provide top-down constraints on surface NO x emissions Konovalov et al, 2006;Zhao and Wang, 2009;Lin et al, 2010;Lamsal et al, 2011;Ghude et al, 2013b;Vinken et al, 2014), infer NO x lifetimes (Schaub et al, 2007;Lamsal et al, 2010;Beirle et al, 2011), and estimate surface NO 2 concentrations …”