Lin, Meiyun, Horowitz, Larry W., Payton, Richard, Fiore, Arlene M., Tonnesen, Gail

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Published date March 1, 2017

US surface ozone trends and extremes from 1980 to 2014: quantifying the roles of rising Asian emissions, domestic controls, wildfires, and climate

  • States that US surface O3 responds to varying global-to-regional precursor emissions, climate, and extreme weather
  • Examines these conjoined processes with observations and global chemistry-climate model (GFDL-AM3) hindcasts over 1980–2014
  • Finds that Asian NOx emissions have tripled since 1990, contributing as much as 65% to modeled springtime background O3 increases (0.3–0.5ppbyr−1) over the WUS, outpacing O3 decreases attained via 50% US NOx emission controls
  • Finds that without emission controls, the 95th percentile summertime O3 in the EUS would have increased by 0.2–0.4ppbyr−1 over 1988–2014 due to more frequent hot extremes and rising biogenic isoprene emissions