Reactive nitrogen and its correlation with O3 and CO over the East Mediterranean region
during the MINOS measurement campaign
Christos Giannakopoulos1, Peter Good1, Fiona O'Connor2,
R. Sarda-Esteve3, J. Heland4, N. Mihalopoulos5, J. Williams
6 and L. Lange6
1 National Observatory of Athens, Greece
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK
3 LSCE,CEA Orme des Merisiers, Gif/Yvette, France
4 DLR, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
5 ECPL, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Greece
6 Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
In this study, we have used a three-dimensional offline chemical transport model (TOMCAT)
to examine the aircraft and ground based measurements, which took place during the MINOS
measurement campaign. The MINOS campaign took place during summer 2001 and aimed to
characterize the chemical composition over the East Mediterranean region. TOMCAT is a
three-dimensional model with a detailed tropospheric chemistry scheme including several
non-methane hydrocarbons. We concentrate on air mass origin and age in different altitude
regions of the troposphere by examining relationships such as NOx vs. NOy, PAN vs. NOy, CO
vs O3, CO vs. NOy. For example, a higher NOy/O3 ratio is generally characteristic of
polluted air and a positive correlation between NOy and CO in the lower troposphere suggests
that high NOy values are due to anthropogenic emissions over continental regions. The aim
is to assess the amount of O3 and precursors being transported to the East Mediterranean
region and also the overall influence of anthropogenic or biomass burning emissions to the
ozone budgets of the region. The model results will be extensively validated against
observational data collected during the MINOS campaign.