Dependence of ozone production on NO and hydrocarbons in the troposphere

Abstract

An expression for the production rate of O 3 , P(O 3 ), is derived based on a radical budget equation applicable to low and high NO x conditions. Differentiation of this equation with respect to NO or hydrocarbons (HC) gives an approximate analytic formula in which the relative sensitivity of P(O 3 ) to changes in NO or HC depends only on the fraction of radicals which are removed by reactions with NO x . This formula is tested by comparison with results from a photochemical calculation driven by trace gas observations from the 1995 Southern Oxidants Study (SOS) campaign in Nashville, Tennessee.