Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 2 6 2002 10.5194/acpd-2-2151-2002 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/2/2151/2002/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/2/2151/2002/acpd-2-2151-2002.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/2/2151/2002/acpd-2-2151-2002.pdf 2151 2165 2002-11-19 Intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxide pollution plumes M. Wenig N. Spichtinger A. Stohl G. Held S. Beirle T. Wagner B. Jähne U. Platt Institut für Umweltphysik (IUP), Heidelberg University, Germany Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen, Heidelberg, Germany Lehrstuhl für Bioklimatologie und Immissionsforschung, TUM, Freising, Germany Instituto Pesquisas Meteorológicas, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil now at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD, USA We describe the first satellite observation of intercontinental transport of nitrogen oxides emitted by power plants, verified by simulations with a particle tracer model. The analysis of such episodes shows that anthropogenic NO_x plumes may influence the atmospheric chemistry thousands of kilometers away from its origin, as well as the ocean they traverse due to nitrogen fertilization. This kind of monitoring became possible by applying an improved algorithm to extract the tropospheric fraction of NO₂ from the spectral data coming from the GOME instrument.<br> <br> As an example we show the observation of NO₂ in the time period 4--14 May, 1998, from the South African Plateau to Australia which was possible due to favourable weather conditions during that time period which availed the satellite measurement. This episode was also simulated with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART which uses NO_x emissions taken from an inventory for industrial emissions in South Africa and is driven with analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Additionally lightning emissions were added by utilizing Lightning Imaging Sensor data. Lightning NO_x&nbsp; was found to amount to around 10% of the resulting concentrations. Both, the measured and simulated emission plume show matching patterns while traversing the Indian Ocean to Australia and show great resemblance to the aerosol and CO₂ transport observed by Piketh et al. (2000)