Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Observations Of Peroxyacetyl Nitrate (Pan) In The Upper Troposphere By The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Ace-Fts), K. A. Tereszchuk, D. P. Moore, J. J. Harrison, C. D. Boone, M. Park, J. J. Remedios, W. J. Randel, P. F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Peroxyacetyl nitrate (CH₃CO·O₂NO₂, abbreviated as PAN) is a trace molecular species present in the troposphere and lower stratosphere due primarily to pollution from fuel combustion and the pyrogenic outflows from biomass burning. In the lower troposphere, PAN has a relatively short lifetime and is principally destroyed within a few hours through thermolysis, but it can act as a reservoir and carrier of NO_x in the colder temperatures of the upper troposphere, where UV photolysis becomes the dominant loss mechanism. Pyroconvective updrafts from large biomass burning events can inject PAN into the upper troposphere …