Global and regional effects of the photochemistry of CH₃O₂NO₂: Evidence from ARCTAS

We investigate the regional and global effects of CH₃O₂NO₂ by including its chemistry in the GEOS-Chem 3-D global chemical transport model.

We find that at temperatures below 240 K inclusion of CH₃O₂NO₂ chemistry results in decreases of up to ~20 % in NOx, ~20 % in N2O5, ~5 % in HNO₃, ~2 % in ozone, and increases in methyl hydrogen peroxide of up to ~14 %. Larger changes are observed in biomass burning plumes lofted to high altitude. Additionally, by sequestering NOx at low temperatures, CH₃O₂NO₂ decreases the cycling of HO₃ to OH, resulting in a larger upper tropospheric HO₃ to OH ratio.