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Lars Nieradzik

Researcher

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Tropospheric ozone radiative forcing uncertainty due to pre-industrial fire and biogenic emissions

Author

  • Matthew J. Rowlinson
  • Alexandru Rap
  • Douglas S. Hamilton
  • Richard J. Pope
  • Stijn Hantson
  • Steve R. Arnold
  • Jed O. Kaplan
  • Almut Arneth
  • Martyn P. Chipperfield
  • Piers M. Forster
  • Lars M. Nieradzik
Show all

Summary, in English

pTropospheric ozone concentrations are sensitive to natural emissions of precursor compounds. In contrast to existing assumptions, recent evidence indicates that terrestrial vegetation emissions in the pre-industrial era were larger than in the present day. We use a chemical transport model and a radiative transfer model to show that revised inventories of pre-industrial fire and biogenic emissions lead to an increase in simulated pre-industrial ozone concentrations, decreasing the estimated pre-industrial to present-day tropospheric ozone radiative forcing by up to 34 % (0.38 to 0.25 W mspan classCombining double low line"inline-formula"-2/span). We find that this change is sensitive to employing biomass burning and biogenic emissions inventories based on matching vegetation patterns, as the co-location of emission sources enhances the effect on ozone formation. Our forcing estimates are at the lower end of existing uncertainty range estimates (0.2-0.6 W mspan classCombining double low line"inline-formula"-2/span), without accounting for other sources of uncertainty. Thus, future work should focus on reassessing the uncertainty range of tropospheric ozone radiative forcing.

Department/s

  • eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

Publishing year

2020-09-22

Language

English

Pages

10937-10951

Publication/Series

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Volume

20

Issue

18

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Copernicus GmbH

Topic

  • Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1680-7316