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Direct observations of NOx emissions over the San Joaquin Valley using airborne flux measurements during RECAP-CA 2021 field campaign
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Direct observations of NOx emissions over the San Joaquin Valley using airborne flux measurements during RECAP-CA 2021 field campaign

Qindan Zhu, Bryan Place, Eva Pfannerstill, Sha Tong, Huanxin Zhang, Jun Wang, Clara Nussbaumer, Paul Wooldridge, Benjamin Schulze, Caleb Arata, …
Atmospheric chemistry and physics, Vol.23(17), pp.9669-9683
09/01/2023
DOI: 10.5194/acp-23-9669-2023
url
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9669-2023View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are principle components of air pollution and serve as important ozone precursors. As the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) experiences some of the worst air quality in the United States, reducing NOx emissions is a pressing need, yet quantifying current emissions is complicated due to a mixture of mobile and agriculture sources. We performed airborne eddy covariance flux measurements during the Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in California (RECAP-CA) field campaign in June 2021. Combining footprint calculations and land cover statistics, we disaggregate the observed fluxes into component fluxes characterized by three different land cover types. On average, we find emissions of 0.95 mg N m-2 h-1 over highways, 0.43 mg N m-2 h-1 over urban areas, and 0.30 mg N m-2 h-1 over croplands. The calculated NOx emissions using flux observations are utilized to evaluate anthropogenic emissions inventories and soil NOx emissions schemes. We show that two anthropogenic inventories for mobile sources, EMFAC (EMission FACtors) and FIVE (Fuel-based Inventory for Vehicle Emissions), yield strong agreement with emissions derived from measured fluxes over urban regions. Three soil NOx schemes, including the MEGAN v3 (Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature), BEIS v3.14 (Biogenic Emission Inventory System), and BDISNP (Berkeley–Dalhousie–Iowa Soil NO Parameterization), show substantial underestimates over the study domain. Compared to the cultivated soil NOx emissions derived from measured fluxes, MEGAN and BEIS are lower by more than 1 order of magnitude, and BDISNP is lower by a factor of 2.2. Despite the low bias, observed soil NOx emissions and BDISNP present a similar spatial pattern and temperature dependence. We conclude that soil NOx is a key feature of the NOx emissions in the SJV and that a biogeochemical-process-based model of these emissions is needed to simulate emissions for modeling air quality in the region.
 Agriculture Air Pollution Air Quality Atmospheric Chemistry Ozone Aerosols Agricultural land Air quality models Aircraft Anthropogenic factors Biogenic emissions Eddy covariance Emission inventories Emission measurements Emissions Emissions control Fluctuations Fluxes Gases Highways Industrial plant emissions Inventory management Land cover Land use Lasers Nitrates Nitrogen Nitrogen compounds Nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxides emissions Outdoor air quality Oxides Parameterization Photochemicals Soil Soil temperature Soils Statistical methods Temperature dependence Urban areas Valleys Vehicle emissions VOCs Volatile organic compounds

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