Identification

Title

Acyl peroxy nitrates link oil and natural gas emissions to high ozone abundances in the Colorado Front Range during summer 2015

Abstract

We present measurements of ozone (O-3), acyl peroxy nitrates (APNs), and a suite of O-3 precursors made at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory in Erie, Colorado, during summer 2015. We employ an empirical analysis of the APNs and a previously described positive matrix factorization of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to investigate the contribution of different VOC sources to high O-3 abundances at Boulder Atmospheric Observatory. Based on the ratio of peroxypropionyl nitrate (PPN) to peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), we find that anthropogenic VOC precursors dominate APN production when O-3 is most elevated. Propane and larger alkanes, primarily from oil and natural gas emissions in the Colorado Front Range, drive these elevated PPN to PAN ratios during high O-3 events. The percentage of OH reactivity associated with oil and gas emissions is also positively correlated with O-3 and PPN/PAN. Idealized box model simulations are used to probe the chemical mechanisms potentially responsible for these observations. We find that observed abundances of long-lived oil and natural gas-related VOCs are likely high enough such that the oxidation of these VOCs in a single photochemical day produces sufficient peroxy radicals to contribute to O-3 formation in the northern Colorado Front Range. Based on our empirical observations and box model simulations, we conclude that oil and natural gas emissions contribute to O-3 production on high O-3 days in this region during summer 2015.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d71j9dt3

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-02-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Conformity

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact