Lightning and anthropogenic NOx sources over the United States during the Deep Convective Clouds & Chemistry (DC3) field campaign: Impact on tropospheric NOx, O3 and Outgoing Longwave Radiation

The regional migration of enhancements in NO2 and O3 concentrations, and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) during the DC-3 aircraft campaign (May-June of 2012) has been investigated using satellite data and the Weather Research Forecasting-Chemistry (WRF-Chem). The satellite data include the tropospheric NO2 columns, tropospheric O3 columns, and OLR from OMI, OMI/MLS and NOAA-18 satellite, respectively, for the DC-3 aircraft time period. The simulated NO2, O3 and OLR generally capture the spatial distribution of the corresponding remote sensed ones. We will discuss how the impact of the lighting-generated NOx sources on tropospheric NOx and O3, and OLR through its O3 production over the United States is compared with that of anthropogenic NOx sources. Further, we will show how the impact of both sources on the tropospheric NOx, O3, and OLR varies along with the convective outflow from the continent.