Inverse Modeling of Nitrogen Oxides Emissions from the 2010 Russian Wildfires by Using Satellite Measurements of Nitrogen Dioxide

摘要

Observational constraints to biomass burning (BB) NO x emissions as provided by satellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) critically depend on quantitative assumptions regarding the atmospheric NO x lifetime. In this study, we investigated NO x emissions from the extreme wildfires that occurred in the European part of Russia in summer 2010 by using an original inverse modeling method that allowed us to avoid any a priori assumptions regarding the NO x lifetime. The method was applied to the tropospheric NO 2 columns retrieved from the measurements performed by the OMI satellite instrument, while the relationship between BB NO x emissions and tropospheric NO 2 columns was simulated with the CHIMERE mesoscale chemistry transport model. Our analysis indicated that this relationship depends strongly on BB emissions of volatile organic compounds and that a dependence of the effective NO x lifetime on the NO x fluxes can be essentially nonlinear. Our estimates of the total NO x emissions in the study region are found to be at least 40% larger compared to the respective data from the GFASv1.0 and GFED4.1s global fire emission inventories.