24-hour evolution of an exceptional HONO plume emitted by the
record-breaking 2019/2020 Australian Wildfire tracked from space: role
of heterogeneous photoinduced production
Abstract
Mega-fires have occurred in Australia during the 2019/2020 bushfire
season, leading to enhanced concentrations of many tropospheric
pollutants. Here we report on a fire plume with unusually high and
persistent HONO levels that we could tracked during one day at free
tropospheric levels over the Tasman Sea on 4 January 2020 using IASI and
CrIS satellite observations. HONO concentrations up to about 8 ppb were
retrieved during nighttime. Persistent HONO concentrations
(>1ppb) were still observed at sunrise. Model simulations
suggest a significant contribution of primary fire emissions and
heterogeneous photo-induced reactions to explain the observed
concentrations. However, many uncertainties and unknowns remain in the
plume aerosol load and in the chemical processes which may explain the
model inability to reproduce HONO concentrations at sunrise.