Mid-Latitude Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Production Efficiency
Aura…AuraMid-Latitude Lightning…HomeAboutSpacecraft and InstrumentsWhy Aura?Science and DataEducationNewsroom Better knowledge of nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO+NO2 ) emissions from lightning (LNOx) will improve confidence in the magnitude of production of ozone in the middle and upper troposphere, where the effect of ozone on radiative forcing maximizes. LNOx influences the hydroxyl radical (OH), which is the primary tropospheric oxidant that plays a major role in determining the lifetime of methane, another important climate gas. Aura scientists estimated the production efficiency (PE) of lightning NOx (LNOx) using satellite data from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the ground-based World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) in three regions (Figure 1). Data were obtained over 5 boreal summers, 2007 – 2011, and comprise the largest number of mid-latitude convective events to date for estimating the LNOx PE with satellite NO2 and ground-based lightning measurements. The algorithm estimates freshly produced LNOx by subtracting a background of aged NOx estimated from the OMI dataset itself. An average...