Abstract

GRAJALES, JOHN FREDDY  and  BAQUERO-BERNAL, ASTRID. Inference of surface concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in Colombia from tropospheric columns of the ozone measurement instrument (OMI). Atmósfera [online]. 2014, vol.27, n.2, pp.193-214. ISSN 0187-6236.

For the first time, maps of surface concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are presented for the Colombian territory. NO₂ surface concentrations for the year 2007 are inferred based on two sources of tropospheric NO₂ column data: (1) a simulation using a three-dimensional global model (GEOS-Chem) and (2) measurements made by the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) onboard the NASA Aura satellite. Results show monthly averages between 0.1 and 6 ppbv. We compare these inferred values to corrected ground measurements of NO₂. We find correlation coefficients of up to 0.91 between the inferred data and the corrected observational data. A significant source of NO₂ is biomass burning, which can be diagnosed by data of fire radiative power (FRP) from the Monitoring of Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis. We find a close relationship between high values of inferred NO₂ surface concentrations and biomass burning for a large area which encompasses the departments of Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, Vichada, and Putumayo.

Keywords : Inference of nitrogen dioxide surface concentration; density of tropospheric columns; OMI; GEOS-Chem; fire radiative power; chemiluminescence interference; overestimation; Colombia.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )