Spaceborne Observations of Lightning NO2 in the Arctic

Abstract

The Arctic region is experiencing notable warming as well as more lightning. Lightning is the dominant source of upper tropospheric nitrogen oxides (NO_x), which are precursors for ozone and hydroxyl radicals. In this study, we combine the nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) observations from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) with Vaisala Global Lightning Dataset 360 to evaluate lightning NO₂ (LNO₂) production in the Arctic. By analyzing consecutive TROPOMI NO₂ observations, we determine the lifetime and production efficiency of LNO₂ during the summers of 2019-2021. Our results show that the LNO₂ production efficiency over the ocean is ∼6 times higher than over continental regions. Additionally, we find that a higher LNO₂ production efficiency is often correlated with lower lightning rates. The summertime lightning NO_x emission in the Arctic (north of 70° N) is estimated to be 219 ± 116 Mg of N, which is equal to 5% of anthropogenic NO_x emissions. However, for the span of a few hours, the Arctic LNO₂ density can even be comparable to anthropogenic NO₂ emissions in the region. These new findings suggest that LNO₂ can play an important role in the upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere atmospheric chemical processes in the Arctic, particularly during the summer.

Keywords: Arctic; TROPOMI; lightning; nitrogen dioxide; satellite measurements.