Global satellite retrievals of Peroxy Acetyl Nitrate (PAN) in the troposphere

Peroxyacetyl Nitrate (PAN) is a thermally unstable reservoir for NOx that allows NOx to be transported over large distances, enabling ozone formation far downwind from the original source. Satellite retrievals of PAN could potentially provide substantial information on the fate of NOx emissions from a range of sources including biomass burning and anthropogenic combustion. PAN has previously been retrieved in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere on a global scale from limb-sounding satellite instruments. PAN signatures have also been detected in nadir-viewing satellite observations of smoke plumes from fires. However, to our knowledge, PAN has not yet been retrieved in the nadir view on a global scale. Here we present global observations of tropospheric PAN from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), a thermal infrared spectrometer flying on the Aura satellite since 2004. PAN can be detected in TES spectra for cases where the PAN signal is above the instrument noise. The detection limit for a single TES measurement is dependent on the atmospheric and surface conditions. For observations where the cloud optical depth is less than 0.5, we find that the TES detection limit for PAN is in the region of 200 to 300 pptv. We present example distributions of elevated PAN concentrations associated with (1) trans-Pacific transport of Asian pollution, (2) boreal biomass burning and (3) the Tropical South Atlantic in austral spring.