Non-methane volatile organic compounds in Africa: a vew from space

Isoprene emissions affect human health, air quality, and the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Globally anthropogenic non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) emissions are lower than that of isoprene, but local hotspots are hazardous to human health and air quality. In Africa the tropics...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Marais, Eloise Ann
Other Authors: Jacob, Daniel James
Language:en_US
Published: Harvard University 2014
Subjects:
OMI
Online Access:http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11313
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12274545
Description
Summary:Isoprene emissions affect human health, air quality, and the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Globally anthropogenic non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) emissions are lower than that of isoprene, but local hotspots are hazardous to human health and air quality. In Africa the tropics are a large source of isoprene, while Nigeria appears as a large contributor to regional anthropogenic NMVOC emissions. I make extensive use of space-based formaldehyde (HCHO) observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the chemical transport model (CTM) GEOS-Chem to estimate and examine seasonality of isoprene emissions across Africa, and identify sources and air quality consequences of anthropogenic NMVOC emissions in Nigeria. === Earth and Planetary Sciences