A large source of atomic chlorine from ClNO2 photolysis at a UK landfill site

Abstract

Nitryl chloride (ClNO 2) acts as a source of highly reactive chlorine atoms as well as an important NO x reservoir. Measurements of ClNO 2 at an operational U.K. landfill site are reported here for the first time. A peak concentration of 4 ppb of ClNO 2 was found with a peak mean nighttime maximum of 0.9 ppb. Using models based upon the photolysis of observed ClNO 2 and atmospheric chlorine chemistry, chlorine atom concentrations reaching in excess of 1.20 × 10 5 molecules/cm 3 in the early morning following sunrise are calculated. These concentrations are approximately 10 times higher than previously reported in the United Kingdom, suggesting a significant impact on the oxidizing capacity around such sites. Given the ubiquity of landfill sites regionally and globally, and the large abundances of Cl atoms from the photolysis of ClNO 2, chlorine chemistry has a significant impact on ozone formation and volatile organic compounds oxidation as shown by WRF-Chem modeling.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083764
Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
Additional Information: ©2019. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords: CIMS,ClNO,landfill,Geophysics,Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
Publication ISSN: 1944-8007
Last Modified: 19 Feb 2024 08:27
Date Deposited: 20 Aug 2019 09:53
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://agupubs ... 29/2019GL083764 (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2019-08-12
Published Online Date: 2019-07-29
Accepted Date: 2019-07-10
Authors: Bannan, Thomas J.
Khan, M. Anwar H.
Breton, Michael Le
Priestley, Michael
Worrall, Stephen D (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-1969-3671)
Bacak, Asan
Marsden, Nicholas
Lowe, Douglas
Pitt, Joseph
Allen, Grant
Topping, David
Coe, Hugh
McFiggans, Gordon
Shallcross, Dudley E.
Percival, Carl J.

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