Ship emission of nitrous acid (HONO) and its impacts on the marine atmospheric oxidation chemistry.

Abstract Nitrous acid (HONO) is an important reservoir of the hydroxyl radical (OH) and thus plays a central role in tropospheric chemistry. Exhaust from engines has long been known as a major primary source of HONO, yet most previous studies focused on vehicle emissions on land. In comparison, ship emissions of HONO have been rarely characterized, and their impacts on the tropospheric oxidation chemistry have not been quantified. In this study, we conducted cruise measurements of HONO and related species over the East China Sea. Contrasting air masses from pristine marine background air to highly polluted ship plumes were encountered. The emission ratio of ΔHONO/ΔNOx (0.51 ± 0.18%) was derived from a large number of fresh ship plumes. Using the in-situ measured emission ratio, a global ship emission inventory of HONO was developed based on the international shipping emissions of NOx in the Community Emission Data System inventory. The global shipping voyage emits approximately 63.9 ± 22.2 Gg yr−1 of HONO to the atmosphere. GEOS-Chem modelling with the addition of ship-emitted HONO showed that HONO concentrations could increase up to 40–100% over the navigation areas, leading to about 5–15% increases of primary OH production in the early-morning time. This study elucidates the potentially considerable effects of ship HONO emissions on the marine atmospheric chemistry, and calls for further studies to better characterize the ship emissions of HONO and other reactive species, which should be taken into account by global and regional models.