Abstract
Model calculations and field measurements have shown that when air masses accumulate emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from sources in continental Europe and then move towards Scandinavia without any synoptic scale break-up of the atmospheric boundary layer (e.g. frontal passages), elevated PAN concentrations in southern Norway or Sweden in the range 1–5 ppb may be caused by long-range transport. The model calculations showed that over sea, the persistence of PAN was comparable to that of ozone in an ageing air mass when the temperatures were fairly low (5–10°C). At higher temperatures the thermal decomposition of PAN made the compound less persistent than ozone. Over land, the situation may be different since the ground removal is typically three times more efficient for ozone than for PAN.
According to the model, the concentration of PAN did not change very much when an ageing air mass was exposed to moderate emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, or both. The concentration of PAN decreased less than the concentration of ozone when an ageing air mass was exposed to high emissions of nitrogen oxides.
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Hov, Ø. Modelling of the long-range transport of peroxyacetylnitrate to Scandinavia. J Atmos Chem 1, 187–202 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053840
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053840