3-DIMENSIONAL MODEL STUDIES OF THE EFFECT OF NOX EMISSIONS FROM AIRCRAFT ON OZONE IN THE UPPER TROPOSPHERE OVER EUROPE AND THE NORTH-ATLANTIC

A mesoscale chemistry transport model is coupled to a numerical weathe r prediction model (NWP) for Europe and the North Atlantic. It is appl ied to show that air traffic emissions significantly increase the conc entrations of NOx as well as the net chemical formation rate of ozone over both the Atlantic Ocean and over central Europe. The time period studied was July 1-10, 1991, a period characterized by a high-pressure ridge over North Europe. In convection the vertical gradient of NOx i s strongly reduced because the midtropospheric concentrations;increase . In the updraft region of convective plumes, chemical ozone formation up to 1.8 ppbv/h is calculated in the upper troposphere, and this is about a factor 50 higher than the average for 10.5 km over continental Europe during the 10-day period. The high production rates are not su stained for more than a few hours, and it would be difficult to identi fy the effect of the process in a local measurement of the ozone conce ntration. The calculations indicate that 10-25 molecules of O-3 (0.03- 0.05 ppb/h) are generated on the average per NOx molecule emitted from aircraft (2-3 ppt/h). On convective days over regions with significan t surface sources of NOx, ozone formation in the upper troposphere due to NOx brought there by convection, outweighs the role of aircraft NO x emissions. The net chemical formation rate of ozone across the model domain depends on the boundary concentrations of NOx and O-3, but the change in the upper troposphere in the net chemical formation rate of ozone induced by aircraft NOx emissions is quite independent of the c oncentrations of NOx or O-3.