Bromine and iodine chemistry in a global chemistry-climate model: description and evaluation of very short-lived oceanic sources
Item
Title (Dublin Core)
Bromine and iodine chemistry in a global chemistry-climate model: description and evaluation of very short-lived oceanic sources
Description (Dublin Core)
The global chemistry-climate model CAM-Chem has been extended to incorporate an expanded bromine and iodine chemistry scheme that includes natural oceanic sources of very short-lived (VSL) halocarbons, gas-phase photochemistry and heterogeneous reactions on aerosols. Ocean emissions of five VSL bromocarbons (CHBr<sub>3</sub>, CH<sub>2</sub>Br<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>2</sub>BrCl, CHBrCl<sub>2</sub>, CHBr<sub>2</sub>Cl) and three VSL iodocarbons (CH<sub>2</sub>ICl, CH<sub>2</sub>IBr, CH<sub>2</sub>I<sub>2</sub>) have been parameterised by a biogenic chlorophyll-<i>a</i> (chl-<i>a</i>) dependent source in the tropical oceans (20° N–20° S). Constant oceanic fluxes with 2.5 coast-to-ocean emission ratios are separately imposed on four different latitudinal bands in the extratropics (20°–50° and above 50° in both hemispheres). Top-down emission estimates of bromocarbons have been derived using available measurements in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, while iodocarbons have been constrained with observations in the marine boundary layer (MBL). Emissions of CH<sub>3</sub>I are based on a previous inventory and the longer lived CH<sub>3</sub>Br is set to a surface mixing ratio boundary condition. The global oceanic emissions estimated for the most abundant VSL bromocarbons – 533 Gg yr<sup>−1</sup> for CHBr<sub>3</sub> and 67.3 Gg yr<sup>−1</sup> for CH<sub>2</sub>Br<sub>2</sub> – are within the range of previous estimates. Overall the latitudinal and vertical distributions of modelled bromocarbons are in good agreement with observations. Nevertheless, we identify some issues such as the reduced number of aircraft observations to validate models in the Southern Hemisphere, the overestimation of CH<sub>2</sub>Br<sub>2</sub> in the upper troposphere – lower stratosphere and the underestimation of CH<sub>3</sub>I in the same region. Despite the difficulties involved in the global modelling of the shortest lived iodocarbons (CH<sub>2</sub>ICl, CH<sub>2</sub>IBr, CH<sub>2</sub>I<sub>2</sub>), modelled results are in good agreement with published observations in the MBL. Finally, sensitivity simulations show that knowledge of the diurnal emission cycle for these species, in particular for CH<sub>2</sub>I<sub>2</sub>, is key to assess their global source strength.
Creator (Dublin Core)
Ordóñez, C.
Lamarque, J.-F.
Tilmes, S.
Kinnison, D. E.
Atlas, E. L.
Blake, D. R.
Sousa Santos, G.
Brasseur, G.
Saiz-Lopez, A.
Date (Dublin Core)
2018-01-15
Type (Dublin Core)
Text
Format (Dublin Core)
application/pdf
Identifier (Dublin Core)
10.5194/acp-12-1423-2012
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/12/1423/2012/
Source (Dublin Core)
eISSN: 1680-7324
Language (Dublin Core)
eng
