Nitrogen Oxides in the Remote Marine Environment: Implications for Oceanic Emissions and Photolysis of Particulate Nitrate

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Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) in the remote marine atmosphere is underestimated by chemistry‐climate models. We explore the potential oceanic emissions of NO and its impacts using a global chemistry‐climate model with a newly developed oceanic NO emission inventory, considering the abiotic photochemical production of NO in the seawater. The results are evaluated using global observations from the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). We propose that the photochemical production of NO from the photolysis of dissolved inorganic nitrite and nitrate in the surface seawater could lead to an oceanic NO x source of ∼3 Tg N per year, which could explain the missing NO in the remote marine boundary layer. This potential oceanic NO source leads to a small but potentially widespread increase in surface ozone and hydroxyl radicals in the remote marine environment, altering our understanding of the role the remote marine atmosphere plays in the global system. Further, the role of the photolysis of nitrate aerosols may be overestimated in recent studies and warrants further investigation.
Funding Information
  • National Science Foundation (AGS‐2155193)

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