Synthesizing evidence for the external cycling of NOx in high- to low-NOx atmospheres

External cycling regenerating nitrogen oxides (NOx equivalent to NO + NO2) from their oxidative reservoir, NOz, is proposed to reshape the temporal-spatial distribution of NOx and consequently hydroxyl radical (OH), the most important oxidant in the atmosphere. Here we verify the in situ external cycling of NO(x )in various environments with nitrous acid (HONO) as an intermediate based on synthesized field evidence collected onboard aircraft platform at daytime. External cycling helps to reconcile stubborn underestimation on observed ratios of HONO/NO2 and NO2/NOz by current chemical model schemes and rationalize atypical diurnal concentration profiles of HONO and NO2 lacking noontime valleys specially observed in low-NOx atmospheres. Perturbation on the budget of HONO and NOx by external cycling is also found to increase as NOx concentration decreases. Consequently, model underestimation of OH observations by up to 41% in low NOx atmospheres is attributed to the omission of external cycling in models.

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Author Ye, C.
Zhou, X.
Zhang, Y.
Wang, Y.
Wang, J.
Zhang, C.
Woodward-Massey, R.
Cantrell, C.
Mauldin, R. L.
Campos, Teresa
Hornbrook, Rebecca
Ortega, John
Apel, Eric C.
Haggerty, Julie A.
Hall, Samuel R.
Ullmann, Kirk
Weinheimer, Andrew
Stutz, J.
Karl, T.
Smith, J. N.
Guenther, A.
Song, S.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2023-12-02T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T15:11:57.376102
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26839
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Ye, C., Zhou, X., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, J., Zhang, C., Woodward-Massey, R., Cantrell, C., Mauldin, R. L., Campos, Teresa, Hornbrook, Rebecca, Ortega, John, Apel, Eric C., Haggerty, Julie A., Hall, Samuel R., Ullmann, Kirk, Weinheimer, Andrew, Stutz, J., Karl, T., Smith, J. N., Guenther, A., Song, S.. (2023). Synthesizing evidence for the external cycling of NOx in high- to low-NOx atmospheres. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7ng4vrk. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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