Investigating the Link Between Glyoxal and Biogenic Activities - Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science - page 53

Investigating the Link Between Glyoxal
and Biogenic Activities

Leonardo M.A. Alvarado, Andreas Richter, Mihalis Vrekoussis,
Folkard Wittrock, Andreas Hilboll, Stefan F. Schreier
and John P. Burrows

Abstract Measurements by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the
Aura satellite have been used to retrieve global maps of glyoxal (CHOCHO) col-
umns by applying the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS)
method. Large amounts of glyoxal are found over regions with high biogenic
emissions and vegetation

fires, as well as over highly populated areas with large
anthropogenic emissions. This paper focuses on investigating the link between
CHOCHO columns and biogenic emissions during 2005

2012. The largest corre-
lations are observed over the Southeastern US and the North of Africa, where large
vegetation areas are found. Moreover, negative correlation are found over African
regions where large

-

re events occur.

Keywords Correlation coef cients VOC Glyoxal OMI DOAS

1 Introduction

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) are emitted from a wide variety of natural and
anthropogenic sources, as well as by geochemical processes (Kansal 2009 ). VOC
have signi

cant impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate change (Vrekoussis
et al. 2010 ; Williams 2004 ), due to their contribution in the formation of tropo-
spheric ozone (O 3 ) in combination with nitrogen oxides NO x (Houweling et al.
1998 ); they also contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA)
(Fu et al. 2008 ). The biogenic global emissions of VOC exceed the anthropogenic
ones with annual

releases of about 1,150 TgCyr − 1

(Guenther et al. 2000 ).