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Detailed Reference Information |
Toumi, R., Haigh, J.D. and Law, K.S. (1996). A tropospheric ozone-lightning climate feedback. Geophysical Research Letters 23: doi: 10.1029/96GL00944. issn: 0094-8276. |
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Tropospheric ozone is an important greenhouse gas. In the upper troposphere one of the major sources of ozone are the nitrogen oxides produced by lightning [IPCC, 1995>. Recently it has been shown that the number of lightning flashes may be very sensitive to changes in the surface temperature [Williams, 1992>. Here we use a global two-dimensional atmospheric model and find that for a warmer surface and constant lightning ozone decreases globally except for in the polluted Northern Hemisphere. However, a warming with increased lightning can more than offset this decrease. We find that for a 20% increase of lightning the global mean radiative forcing by tropospheric ozone is about +0.1 Wm-2. There is therefore a possibility of a positive climate feedback mechanism. The implied sensitivity of ozone to lightning and temperature suggests a major uncertainty in quantifying anthropogenic perturbations of upper tropospheric ozone. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996 |
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BACKGROUND DATA FILES |
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Abstract![](/images/icons/spacer.gif) |
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Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Troposphere—composition and chemistry, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Lightning, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Land/atmosphere interactions |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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