Lightning-Generated NO(X) Seen By the Ozone Monitoring Instrument During NASA’s Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC(4))

Abstract

We present case studies identifying lightning-generated upper tropospheric NO_x (LNO_x) observed during NASA’s Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC⁴) in July and August 2007. In the campaign, DC-8 aircraft missions, flown from Costa Rica, recorded in situ NO₂ profiles near active storms and in relatively quiet areas. We combine these TC⁴ DC-8 data with satellite data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to estimate the lightning-generated NO₂ (LNO₂), above background levels, in the observed OMI NO₂ fields. We employ improved off-line processing techniques to customize the OMI retrieval for LNO₂. Information on lightning flashes (primarily cloud-to-ground) observed by the Costa Rica Lightning Detection Network operated by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and the World Wide Lightning Location Network were examined over storms upwind of regions where OMI indicates enhanced LNO₂. These flash data are compared with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission/Lightning Imaging Sensor satellite data to estimate total flashes. Finally, using [NO_x]/[NO₂] ratios from NASA’s Global Modeling Initiative model, we estimate LNO_x production per flash for four cases and obtain rates of ∼100-250 mol/flash. These are consistent with rates derived from previous studies of tropical and subtropical storms and below those from modeling of observed midlatitude storms. In our study, environments with stronger anvil-level winds were associated with higher production rates. LIS flash footprint data for one of the low-LNO_x production cases with weak upper tropospheric winds suggest below-average flash lengths for this storm. LNO_x enhancements over background determined from the OMI data were in less than, but roughly proportional to, aircraft estimates.