Identification

Title

Evidence for an oceanic source of methyl ethyl ketone to the atmosphere

Abstract

Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) is a relatively abundant but understudied oxygenated volatile organic compound that can serve as a source of both HOx and PAN when photooxidized. We use aircraft observations of MEK from the remote marine troposphere to show that the ocean serves as a source of MEK to the atmosphere during both meteorological winter and summer. There is pronounced seasonality in the MEK profiles in the extratropical troposphere, with higher MEK mixing ratios observed in summer than in winter. MEK in clean air over the remote oceans correlates with both acetone and acetaldehyde, whose primary sources in the ocean water are the photooxidation of organic material. We show that even a small (>1 nM) concentration of MEK in surface waters is sufficient allow the ocean to be a net source of MEK to the atmosphere over ocean basins across multiple seasons.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7348pkc

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-02-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact