Evaluation of model-simulated glyoxal in the remote marine atmosphere and dependencies sea-air exchange processes

Reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the remote marine atmosphere have impacts on climate through affecting atmospheric oxidation capacity (with subsequent effects on methane lifetime), and through affecting remote aerosol abundances, where they may modify cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations in regions of low CCN abundance. An improved understanding of aerosol and trace gas budgets in the remote marine atmosphere may aid in reducing uncertainties in the extent of anthropogenic warming and cooling contributions to radiative forcing of climate, since they are key components of the background natural atmospheric composition upon which anthropogenic influences are added. Glyoxal (CHOCHO) is a highly reactive oxygenated VOC, which observations have shown is ubiquitous throughout the global troposphere. In the remote marine atmosphere, glyoxal has the potential to act as a source of secondary organic aerosol and to modify the atmospheric oxidising capacity through impacts on radical photochemistry. In our recent work, we demonstrated the potential for acetaldehyde as a source of glyoxal in the remote atmosphere, via a minor oxidation pathway which dominates in-situ glyoxal production in clean marine air masses.

Here we present the first evaluation of global model-simulated glyoxal abundances in the remote marine atmosphere using high temporal (hourly) in situ measurements, and a collection of glyoxal observations synthesised from the literature. Measurements made using a sensitive laser-induced phosphorescence instrument at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory in the tropical Atlantic  over two 4-week campaigns are compared with CAM-chem, a component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) v2.2 including the MOZART-TS1 tropospheric chemistry mechanism. We show that the global model is capable of reproducing the magnitude of the in situ glyoxal observations from the tropical Atlantic marine boundary layer only when accounting for both the production of glyoxal from acetaldehyde oxidation, and the two-way sea-air exchange of acetaldehyde over the oceans. These model processes also improve the model-simulated glyoxal compared with remote sensing measurements in the tropical Pacific, but with a larger remaining bias. The model is not capable of reproducing observed nighttime glyoxal abundances at Cape Verde, with a large model underestimate. We show that the inclusion of a sea-air emission source of glyoxal, as a proxy for a potential source from the sea surface microlayer, allows the model to reproduce the observed magnitude of nighttime glyoxal. Our results demonstrate that an unconstrained global model is capable of reproducing observed daytime glyoxal abundances in the remote tropical Atlantic atmosphere, and further imply a coupling between acetaldehyde and glyoxal in the remote troposphere. The model results support the potential for a net sea surface to atmosphere source in sustaining nighttime glyoxal concentrations in this region.