Aviation -- Global change connection from the perspective of the emerging new chemistry of nitrous oxide
- Creative Research Interprises, Pleasanton, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics
The emerging new chemistry of nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O) suggests some fresh insight into the potential connection between high speed civil transportation system (aviation) which is a significant form of the anthropogenic activity, and global change. The two are connected because the high speed flights through the atmosphere deposit oxide of nitrogen and soot in the atmosphere and also generate contrails which affect global distributions of ozone and cloudiness. Based on the current ideas about the atmospheric odd-nitrogen (NO{sub x}) chemistry, aviation is generally thought to have no long range adverse effect on climate. However, recent theoretical and experimental studies of the atmospheric sources and sinks of nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O) suggest that the contemporary ideas about the atmospheric NO{sub x} chemistry could be inadequate. Laboratory experiments, for example, show that the reactions of electronically excited NO{sub 2} and the excited O{sub 3} formed by (O, O{sub 2}) and (O({sup 1}D), O{sub 2}) recombination may be significant sources of N{sub 2}O in the troposphere, with a potential to provide as much as 6 Tg/yr to the atmosphere. Furthermore, recent experiments and chemical detailed balancing arguments, show that the reaction between N{sub 2} and O{sub 2} (B{sup 3}{Sigma}) state which is efficiently produced solar optical pumping, is also a stratospheric source of N{sub 2}O. The discovery of these sources imply that there must also be photochemically coupled sinks of N{sub 2}O in the stratosphere that satisfy the constraints imposed by the in-situ mixing ratio data and may account for the unique isotope signature of stratospheric N{sub 2}O.
- OSTI ID:
- 471062
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960420-; ISBN 0-884736-02-5; TRN: IM9722%%185
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 7. global warming international conference and exposition, Vienna (Austria), 1-3 Apr 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The 7. global warming international conference and expo: Abstracts; PB: 154 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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