Tropospheric nitric acid columns from the IASI satellite instrument interpreted with a chemical transport model: Implications for parameterizations of nitric oxide production by lightning

This paper interprets tropical tropospheric nitric acid columns from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite instrument with a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). GEOS-Chemand IASI columns generally agree over the tropical ocean to within 10%. However, the GEOS-Chem simulation underestimates IASI nitric acid over Southeast Asia by a factor of 2. The regional nitric acid bias is confirmed by comparing the GEOS-Chem simulation with additional satellite (High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder, Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer) and aircraft (Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM)-Tropics A and PEM-West B) observations of the middle and upper troposphere. This bias appears to be driven by the lightning NO_x parameterization, both in terms of the magnitude of the NO_x source and the ozone production efficiency of concentrated lightning NO_x plumes. We tested a subgrid lightning plume parameterization and found that an ozone production efficiency of 15 mol/mol in lightning plumes over Southeast Asia in conjunction with an additional 0.5 Tg N would reduce the regional nitric acid bias from 92% to 6% without perturbing the rest of the tropics. Other sensitivity studies such as modified NO_x yield per flash, increased altitude of lightning NO_x emissions, decreased convective mass flux, or increased scavenging of nitric acid required unrealistic changes to reduce the bias.