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Impact of aircraft and surface emissions of nitrogen oxides on tropospheric ozone and global warming

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Abstract

ACTUAL and potential increases in aircraft traffic are causing concern about the effects of aircraft exhaust emission on atmos-pheric chemistry. Model results1–3 and measurements4–6 in the Northern Hemisphere have shown that growth in surface emissions of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons leads to increases in concentration of tropospheric ozone. Tropospheric ozone is toxic to plants, humans and other organisms, and it is a greenhouse gas7–9. The radiative forcing of surface temperature is most sensitive to changes in tropospheric ozone at a height of ∼12 km (ref. 8), where aircraft emissions of nitrogen oxides are at a maximum and where the model sensitivity of ozone to nitrogen oxide emissions is enhanced. Our model results show that the radiative forcing of surface temperature is about thirty times more sensitive to aircraft emissions of nitrogen oxides than to surface emissions. We also find that the impact on global warming of increases in tropospheric ozone caused by increases in surface emissions of nitrogen oxides has previously been overestimated by a factor of five1,10, owing to an error in the calculation of the ozone budget.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Modelling and Assessments Group AEA Environment and Energy, Harwell Laboratory, Didcot, Oxfordshire, 0X11 ORA, UK

    Colin Johnson & Jim Henshaw

  2. Air Pollution Division, Warren Spring Laboratory, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2BX, UK

    Gordon Mclnnes

Authors
  1. Colin Johnson
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  2. Jim Henshaw
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  3. Gordon Mclnnes
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Johnson, C., Henshaw, J. & Mclnnes, G. Impact of aircraft and surface emissions of nitrogen oxides on tropospheric ozone and global warming. Nature 355, 69–71 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/355069a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/355069a0

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