Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 3 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-10883-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10883/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10883/2009/acpd-9-10883-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/10883/2009/acpd-9-10883-2009.pdf 10883 10912 2009-05-04 What drives the observed variability of HCN in the troposphere and lower stratosphere? Q. Li q.li@ed.ac.uk P. I. Palmer H. C. Pumphrey P. Bernath E. Mahieu School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, UK Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium We use the GEOS-Chem global 3-D chemistry transport model to investigate the relative importance of chemical and physical processes that determine observed variability of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. Consequently, we reconcile ground-based FTIR column measurements of HCN, which show annual and semi-annual variations, with recent space-borne measurements of HCN mixing ratio in the tropical lower stratosphere, which show a large two-year variation. We find that the observed column variability over the ground-based stations is determined by a superposition of HCN from several regional burning sources, with GEOS-Chem reproducing these column data with a positive bias of 5%. GEOS-Chem reproduces the observed tropical HCN variability from the Microwave Limb Sounder and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment satellite instruments with a negative bias of 7%. We show the tropical biomass burning emissions explain mostly the observed HCN variations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), with the remainder due to atmospheric transport and HCN chemistry. In the mid and upper stratosphere, atmospheric dynamics progressively exerts more influences on HCN variations. 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