Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2223
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2223
10 Oct 2023
 | 10 Oct 2023

Extension, Development and Evaluation of the representation of the OH-initiated DMS oxidation mechanism in the MCM v3.3.1 framework

Lorrie Jacob, Chiara Giorio, and Alexander Thomas Archibald

Abstract.

Understanding dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oxidation can help us constrain its contribution to Earth’s radiative balance. Following the discovery of hydroperoxymethyl thioformate (HPMTF) as a DMS oxidation product, a range of new experimental chamber studies have since improved our knowledge of the oxidation mechanism of DMS and delivered detailed chemical mechanisms. However, these mechanisms have not undergone formal intercomparisons to evaluate their performance.

This study aimed to synthesise the recent experimental studies and develop a new, near-explicit, DMS mechanism, through a thorough literature review, as a reference mechanism for future work to build on. A simple box model was then used with the mechanism to simulate a series of chamber experiments, and evaluated through comparison with four published mechanisms. Our modelling shows that the mechanism developed in this work outperformed the other mechanisms on average when com- pared to the experimental chamber data, having the lowest fractional gross error for 8 out of the 14 DMS oxidation products studied. A box model of a marine boundary layer was also run, demonstrating that the deviations in the mechanisms seen when comparing them against chamber data are also prominent under more atmospherically relevant conditions.

Although this work demonstrates the need for further experimental work, the mechanism developed in this work, having been evaluated against a range of experimental conditions, provides a good basis for a near-explicit DMS oxidation mechanism that would include other initiation reactions (e.g., halogens), and can be used to compare the performance of reduced mechanisms used in global models.

Lorrie Jacob et al.

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2223', Anonymous Referee #1, 01 Nov 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2223', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Nov 2023

Lorrie Jacob et al.

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Short summary
Recent studies on DMS have provided new challenges to our mechanistic understanding. Here we synthesise a number of recent studies to further develop and extend a state-of-art mechanism. Our new mechanism is shown to outperform all existing mechanisms when compared over a wide set of conditions. The development of an improved DMS mechanism will help lead the way to better understanding the climate impacts of DMS emissions in past, present and future atmospheric conditions.