HR: 14:40h
AN: A53D-05 [Abstracts]
TI: Airborne Tunable Diode Laser Measurements of Formaldehyde During INTEX: Mixing Ratio Distributions Over
North America and Comparisons with Models
AU: * Fried, A
EM: fried@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Earth Observing Laboratory
3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301
United States
AU: Walega, J
EM: walega@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Earth Observing Laboratory
3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301
United States
AU: Crawford, J
EM: James.H.Crawford@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, Earth Sciences Div, Hampton, VA 23681
United States
AU: Olson, J R
EM: Jennifer.R.Olson@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, Earth Sciences Div, Hampton, VA 23681
United States
AU: Chen, G
EM: Gao.Chen-1@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, Earth Sciences Div, Hampton, VA 23681
United States
AB:
Formaldehyde (HCHO) is a key reactive trace gas present throughout the atmosphere and is involved in a number of important
atmospheric processes, including hydrocarbon oxidation, ozone production, reactive hydrogen radical formation, and generation
of carbon monoxide. Because of this importance and its integral role in helping to test photochemical reaction pathways,
extensive measurements of HCHO and comparisons with box models have been carried out over wide geographic regions of the
globe with varying levels of agreement. Despite this importance, very little is known about the vertical transport of HCHO
from source regions in the boundary layer over North America to the upper troposphere from convective outflow. This talk will
present HCHO mixing ratios, acquired by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy operated onboard NASA's DC-8 aircraft
during the 2004 INTEX-A study, over wide geographic source regions of North America. This presentation will specifically
highlight elevated HCHO mixing ratios in the upper troposphere from convective outflow and from an Alaskan fire plume.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005