Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the third most important greenhouse gas (GHG) after carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Its global warming potential is about 300 times larger than CO2 for a 100 year timescale. Surface in-situ observations show that N2O is steadily rising since the 1970’s. This positive trend is mostly caused by the rapid increase of the worldwide use of nitrogen fertilizers in the agricultural practices.
NDACC News
March
2021
March
2021
Updates and corrections to the GMI chemical mechanism and its input files have been used to create a new Hindcast simulation with MERRA2 meteorology. The changes compared to the previous GMI simulation are generally small and you probably won’t see any large impacts on chemical constituents. The greatest impacts are on temporal and spatial evolution of polar ozone depletion and on NOy partitioning globally due a change in stratospheric sulfate surface area. Mechanism and input changes are listed below.
March
2021
The NDACC Lidar Working Group (LWG) has relocated and redesigned its website. The new website URL is https://lidar.jpl.nasa.gov/ndacc/index_ndacc.php. The website features a review of the NDACC lidar stations and instruments, with new links and functionality to check data availability and access them. Fine-tuning of the website content will continue over the upcoming weeks.
February
2021
Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Stauffer for his appointment to a Civil Service position in the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory within the Earth Sciences Division! This appointment is effective 1 March 2021. Ryan is a member of the NDACC Steering Committee, and has been serving as Sonde Working Group Co-Chair since the 2020 annual meeting.
February
2021
As previously announced, we currently are making plans to hold the 2021 NDACC Steering Committee meeting in College Park, MD, the week of 13-17 September 2021. With the ongoing restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains unclear if we will be able to have a face-to-face meeting this year. We are going to make a decision in mid April regarding the meeting format. In the meantime, we ask that you note the dates on your calendar. Whether it be face-to-face or virtual, we hope that as many of you will participate in the meeting as possible.