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Estimates of NO
x
Emission Factors
from GOME-2 Measurements
for the Major Types of Open Biomass
Burning
Stefan F. Schreier, Andreas Richter and John P. Burrows
Abstract
Vegetation
fires across the globe, either started by lightning strikes or
caused by humans, have various impacts on Earth systems such as the atmosphere
and biosphere. A simple statistical approach to estimate emission factors (EFs) of
NO
x
, based on the empirical relationship between satellite-observed tropospheric
NO
2
vertical columns (TVC NO
2
) and
fire radiative power (FRP), is presented. The
great advantage of the method is the partitioning of different NO
x
emission sources
and the application to various biomes and regions. The estimated NO
x
EFs are 1.83,
1.48, 2.96, and 0.72 g kg
−
1
for tropical forest, savanna and grassland, crop residue,
and boreal forest, respectively. There is overall agreement between the satellite-
derived EFs and comparable values reported in the literature, suggesting that the
assumptions made in the approach are reasonable. However, a substantial dis-
crepancy is found for savanna and grassland, which is the most frequently burned
land cover type on Earth. Possible implications of these differences for
fire emission
inventories are discussed.
Keywords
Satellite measurements
GOME-2
Nitrogen dioxide
MODIS
Fire
radiative power
Emission factors
Biomass burning
1 Introduction
Nitrogen oxides (NO
x
=NO+NO
2
) enter the atmosphere from a large number of
natural and anthropogenic processes. Nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO
2
)
are coupled in the atmosphere as NO
2
is photolyzed to produce NO and an oxygen
atom (O), which then reacts with molecular oxygen (O
2
) to produce ozone (O
3
).
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