US EPA

1686333 

Journal Article 

Greenhouse effect of NOx 

Lammel, G; Grassl, H 

1995 

Yes 

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
ISSN: 0944-1344
EISSN: 1614-7499 

2 

1 

40-45 

English 

24234471 

10.1007/BF02987512 

WOS:A1995TU30000009 

Through various processes the nitrogen oxides (NOX) interact with trace gases in the troposphere and stratosphere which do absorb in the spectral range relevant to the greenhouse effect (infrared wavelengths). The net effect is an enhancement of the greenhouse effect. The catalytic role of NOX in the production of tropospheric ozone provides the most prominent contribution. The global waming potential is estimated as GWP (NOX = 30 - 33 and 7 - 10 for the respective time horizons of 20 and 100 years, and is thereby comparable to that of methane. NOX emissions in rural areas of anthropogenically influenced regions, or those in the vicinity of the txopopause caused by air traffic, cause the greenhouse effectivity to be substantially more intense. We estimate an additional 5-23 % for Germany's contribution to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect as a result of the indirect greenhouse effects stemming from NOX. Furthermore, a small and still inaccurately defined amount of the deposited NOX which has primarily been converted into nitrates is again released from the soil into the atmosphere in the form of the long-lived greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Thus, anthropogenically induced NOX emissions contribute to enhanced greenhouse effect and to stratospheric ozone depletion in the time scale of more than a century. 

nitrogen oxides; greenhouse effect; greenhouse gases; trace gases; ozone formation; ozone depletion; troposphere; stratosphere; atmosphere; chemical reactions