AUTHOREA
Log in Sign Up Browse Preprints

loading page

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
  • +4
  • Gaelle Dufour,
  • Maxim Eremenko,
  • Guillaume Siour,
  • Pasquale Sellitto,
  • Juan Cuesta,
  • Agnes Perrin,
  • Matthias Beekmann
Gaelle Dufour
CNRS/Universités Paris Est-Créteil et Paris Diderot

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Maxim Eremenko
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systemes Atmospheriques
Author Profile
Guillaume Siour
LISA
Author Profile
Pasquale Sellitto
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil
Author Profile
Juan Cuesta
LISA, CNRS-UPEC-UPD
Author Profile
Agnes Perrin
LMD/IPSL, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ENS, PSL Université, Sorbonne Université, CNRS
Author Profile
Matthias Beekmann
LISA
Author Profile

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.