Non-methane volatile organic compounds in Africa: A view 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 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.;To estimate isoprene emissions I first developed a filtering scheme to remove (1) contamination from biomass burning and anthropogenic influences; and (2) displacement of HCHO from the isoprene emission source diagnosed with the GEOS-Chem CTM. Conversion to isoprene emissions is with NOx-dependent GEOS-Chem HCHO yields, obtained as the local sensitivity S of the HCHO column ΩHCHO to a perturbation Delta in isoprene emissions EISOP (S = DeltaΩHCHO/DeltaE ISOP). The error in OMI-derived isoprene emissions is 40% at low levels of NOx and 40-90% under high-NOx conditions and is reduced by spatial and temporal averaging to the extent that errors are random. Weak isoprene emission seasonality in equatorial forests is driven predominantly by temperature, while large seasonality in northern and southern savannas is driven by temperature and leaf area index. The largest contribution of African isoprene emissions to surface ozone and particulate matter, determined with GEOS-Chem, of 8 ppbv and 1.5 &mgr;g m-3, respectively, is over West Africa.;The OMI HCHO data feature a large enhancement over Nigeria that is due to anthropogenic NMVOC emissions. With the OMI HCHO data, coincident satellite observations of atmospheric composition, aircraft measurements, and GEOS-Chem I estimate Nigerian NMVOC emissions that are higher per capita than China (5.7 Tg C a-1). Should Nigeria develop its electricity sector to sustain economic growth with local natural gas and coal reserves NO x emissions will exacerbate wintertime (December-February) surface ozone pollution that exceeds 90 ppbv due to poor ventilation and the Harmattan inversion layer.