Nitrogen oxides in remote tropical ocean environments and their impact on air pollution and climate

偏远热带海洋环境中的氮氧化物及其对空气污染和气候的影响

• 批准号: 2595929
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2595929
• 关键词: Nitrogen; oxides; remote; tropical; ocean

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO+NO2) play a central role in the chemistry of the atmosphere, controlling both the production and loss of key air pollutants and climate gases such as methane, ozone, and particulate matter. Primarily emitted by human activity over land, NOx levels are typically very low in remote ocean environments, and yet still regulate key atmospheric processes in these environments. Due to the size of the Earth's oceans, small changes in NOx levels can have large impacts on the atmospheres response to changing emissions. Recent work has highlighted significant apparent knowledge gaps in our understanding of NOx in remote ocean environments, which need to be addressed if we are to inform effective policies to tackle air pollution, climate and ecosystem health. This PhD project will use a newly developed instrument to make highly sensitive measurements of NOx in a remote tropical Atlantic environment, and use these data to advance our knowledge of this keystone of atmospheric chemistry.A major challenge in the study of NOx in remote ocean environments is that levels are so low that they are close to or below the limits of detection of current technologies. The Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories at the University of York have recently built a new instrument, based on laser-induced fluorescence (NO-LIF), for the highly sensitive and selective detection of NO. This instrument, the second of its kind in the world, will enable measurements of NOx with previously unprecedented levels of accuracy and precision, and through comparison with data from state-of-the-science computation models will allow our understanding of this important chemistry to be challenged and improved. This PhD project will be the first to use this new instrument and will be based around the following objectives: - Assist in the development and characterisation of the new NO-LIF instrument for detection of NO and NO2.- Investigate the unique ability of the NO-LIF instrument to distinguish between different NO isotopes to explore remote ocean NO sources.- Deploy the instrument at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory - Use the Cape Verde data to challenge and improve our understanding of remote ocean atmospheric chemistry, through comparison with model predictions, and its impact on regional air pollution and climate.This work will address an important knowledge gap in our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and thus directly improve our ability to design effective environmental policies.

氮氧化物（NOX = NO+NO2）在大气的化学中起着核心作用，可以控制关​​键空气污染物的产生和损失，以及甲烷，臭氧和颗粒物等气候。 NOX水平主要是由人类的活动发出的，通常在偏远的海洋环境中非常低，但仍在调节这些环境中的关键大气过程。由于地球海洋的大小，NOX水平的微小变化可能会对大气对变化排放的反应产生很大的影响。最近的工作强调了我们在偏远海洋环境中对NOX的理解中明显的知识差距，如果我们要为解决空气污染，气候和生态系统健康的有效政策提供信息，则需要解决。该博士学位项目将使用新开发的仪器在偏远的热带大西洋环境中对NOX进行高度敏感的测量，并使用这些数据来促进我们对这种大气化学的基石的了解。在偏远的海洋环境中研究NOX的主要挑战是，水平如此之低，以至于它们接近或低于检测当前技术的限制。约克大学的沃尔夫森大气化学实验室最近建立了一种基于激光诱导的荧光（NO-LIF）的新仪器，以高度敏感和选择性地检测NO。该仪器是世界上第二种工具，将以先前前所未有的准确性和精度来实现NOX的测量，并通过与最先进的计算模型的数据进行比较，将使我们对这一重要化学的理解受到挑战并得到改善。这个博士学位项目将是第一个使用该新工具的项目，并将基于以下目标： - 协助开发和表征新的NO-LIF仪器，以检测NO和NO2。与模型预测及其对区域空气污染和气候的影响进行比较。这项工作将解决我们对大气化学理解的重要知识差距，从而直接提高我们设计有效的环境政策的能力。