An analytic formulation for NO and NO2flux profiles in the atmospheric surface layer

✍ Scribed by Donald H. Lenschow; A. C. Delany

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 414 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-7764
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00114108

✦ Synopsis

The chemical reactivity of NO and NO2 is so rapid that their fluxes and concentrations can be considerably modified from that expected for conserved variables in the atmospheric surface layer, even as low as a meter above the surface. Fitzjarrald and Lenschow (1983) have calculated flux and mean concentration profiles for NO, NO 2 and 03 in the surface layer using numerical techniques. However, their solutions do not approach the photostationary state at large heights.

Here we solve a simpler set of equations analytically (i.e. we assume a constant 03 concentration and neutral hydrodynamic stability), and are able to show how the flux profiles behave at large heights assuming that the concentrations approach their photostationary values. We find, for example, that at large heights the ratio of the flux of NO to that of NO 2 is equal to the ratio of their concentrations. These results are relevant to estimating surface fluxes of NO and NO 2, and are most applicable to nonurban environments where NO and NO2 concentrations are usually much less than 03 concentration.