Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 3 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-10647-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10647/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10647/2009/acpd-9-10647-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10647/2009/acpd-9-10647-2009.pdf 10647 10673 2009-05-04 Lightning-produced NOx during the Northern Australian monsoon; results from the ACTIVE campaign L. Labrador lorenzo.labrador@manchester.ac.uk G. Vaughan W. Heyes D. Waddicor A. Volz-Thomas H.-W. Pätz H. Höller School of Earth Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Manchester University, UK Institut für Chemie und Dynamik der Geosphäre 2, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Measurements of nitrogen oxides onboard a high altitude aircraft were carried out for the first time during the Northern Australian monsoon in the framework of the Aerosol and Chemical Transport in Tropical Convection (ACTIVE) campaign, in the area around Darwin, Australia. During one flight on 22 January 2006, average NOx mixing ratios (mrs) of 723 and 984 parts per trillion volume (pptv) were recorded for both in and out of cloud conditions, respectively. The in-cloud measurements were made in the convective outflow region of a storm 56 km south-west of Darwin, whereas those out of cloud were made due south of Darwin and upwind from the storm sampled. This storm produced a total of only 8 lightning strokes, as detected by an in-situ lightning detection network, ruling out significant lightning-NOx production. 5-day backward trajectories suggest that the sampled airmasses had travelled over convectively-active land in Northern Australia during that period. The low stroke count of the sampled storm, along with the high out-of-cloud NOx concentration, suggest that, in the absence of other major NOx sources during the monsoon season, a combination of processes including regional transport patterns, convective vertical transport and entrainment may lead to accretion of lightning-produced NOx, a situation that contrasts with the pre-monsoon period in Northern Australia, where the high NOx values occur mainly in or in the vicinity of storms. These high NOx concentrations may help start ozone photochemistry and OH radical production in an otherwise NOx-limited environment. 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