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Chemistry Of Hydrogen Oxide Radicals (Hox) In The Arctic Troposphere In Spring, J Mao, D J. Jacob, M J. Evans, J R. Olson, X Ren, W H. Brune, T M. St. Clair, J D. Crounse, K M. Spencer, M R. Beaver, P O. Wennberg, M J. Cubison, J L. Jimenez, A Fried, P Weibring, J G. Walega, S R. Hall, A J. Weinheimer, R C. Cohen, G Chen, J H. Crawford, C Mcnaughton, A D. Clarke, L Jaegle, Jenny A. Fisher, R M. Yantosca, P Le Sager, C C. Carouge

Jenny A Fisher

We use observations from the April 2008 NASA ARCTAS aircraft campaign to the North American Arctic, interpreted with a global 3-D chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem), to better understand the sources and cycling of hydrogen oxide radicals (HOx≡H+OH+peroxy radicals) and their reservoirs (HOy≡HOx+peroxides) in the springtime Arctic atmosphere. We find that a standard gas-phase chemical mechanism overestimates the observed HO2 and H2O2 concentrations. Computation of HOx and HOy gas-phase chemical budgets on the basis of the aircraft observations also indicates a large missing sink for both. We hypothesize that this could reflect HO2 uptake by aerosols, favored by low temperatures and …