Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 4 June 2009
Science 26 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5935, pp. 1702 - 1704
DOI: 10.1126/science.1164566
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Amplified Trace Gas Removal in the Troposphere

Andreas Hofzumahaus,1 Franz Rohrer,1,* Keding Lu,1,2 Birger Bohn,1 Theo Brauers,1 Chih-Chung Chang,3 Hendrik Fuchs,1 Frank Holland,1 Kazuyuki Kita,4 Yutaka Kondo,5 Xin Li,1,2 Shengrong Lou,1,6 Min Shao,2 Limin Zeng,2 Andreas Wahner,1 Yuanhang Zhang2,*

The degradation of trace gases and pollutants in the troposphere is dominated by their reaction with hydroxyl radicals (OH). The importance of OH rests on its high reactivity, its ubiquitous photochemical production in the sunlit atmosphere, and most importantly on its regeneration in the oxidation chain of the trace gases. In the current understanding, the recycling of OH proceeds through HO2 reacting with NO, thereby forming ozone. A recent field campaign in the Pearl River Delta, China, quantified tropospheric OH and HO2 concentrations and turnover rates by direct measurements. We report that concentrations of OH were three to five times greater than expected, and we propose the existence of a pathway for the regeneration of OH independent of NO, which amplifies the degradation of pollutants without producing ozone.

1 Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institut für Chemie und Dynamik der Geosphäre–2: Troposphäre, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
2 College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
3 Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academic Sinica, Taipei, China.
4 Faculty of Science, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan.
5 Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
6 School of Environmental Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: f.rohrer{at}fz-juelich.de (F.R.); yhzhang{at}pku.edu.cn (Y.Z.)

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Epoxying Isoprene Chemistry.
T. E. Kleindienst (2009)
Science 325, 687-688
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)